For Immediate release
OTTAWA, April 27, 2017 - The announcement today that the federal government will reallocate $140 million over two years to ensure federal employees affected by the Phoenix payroll system are properly paid is a welcome, if long overdue, commitment to fix Phoenix once and for all, says the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC).
"We advocated for a special $75 million reserve fund in the current budget, so this shows the government is finally taking the severity of our members' concerns seriously," said PIPSC President Debi Daviau.
"We're also gratified to see that the government has agreed to reimburse charges for tax advisory services incurred by members due to Phoenix problems. This, after all, is only fair," Daviau added.
"It remains to be seen, however, how effective the government will be in controlling payroll errors in the future,” she added. “We’ve argued for a long time that overreliance on outsourced services – including introduction of the Phoenix payroll software and continued reliance on IBM – programs government functions to fail. We hope the ministerial working group also announced today takes these concerns seriously.”
PIPSC represents some 55,000 public-sector professionals across the country, most of them employed by the federal government.
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For further information:
Johanne Fillion (613) 228-6310 ext 2303 (office) or (613) 883-4900 (cell.), jfillion@pipsc.ca.