Don’t Blame Bargaining for Phoenix Failures

Earlier this month, PSPC Minister Carla Qualtrough asked me if I would be willing to negotiate simplifying some of the pay rules bargained over decades that, some claim, contribute to the dysfunction of the federal pay system. My answer was yes – provided it doesn’t result in any loss of pay to our members.

But my willingness to bargain changes in the practical best interests of our members should not be mistaken for believing such pay rules are inherently dysfunctional, or that Phoenix failures are the fault of bargaining or – far from it – of unions.

It is, frankly, absurd and offensive to accuse collective agreements of confounding the current pay system. The old pay system, built in-house by our members and still used in a few workplaces, managed such changes for 40 years without this kind of catastrophic failure. Many of these changes were introduced by management, not unions. Phoenix was sold to the federal government as the software solution to all pay issues -- including changes regularly negotiated through collective bargaining – bypassing the expertise and input of our members. The current government even assured us earlier this year that retro pay would be unaffected.

We are therefore entirely within our rights in demanding that any system as poorly planned, implemented and tested as Phoenix should be scrapped and a new one that works be built.

Our national and international economies are built on options and choices. We have different cars, different houses, different toothpastes. To suggest that we can't have a different pay system for the largest employer in the country is ridiculous. To suggest that we can’t afford it is to ignore the evidence of this week’s report by the Auditor General – who cannot predict when Phoenix will be fixed or how many hundreds of millions of dollars it will cost to do so – and to subject our members, Canadians and future governments to the most costly and dysfunctional pay system ever inflicted on our public service.

Bargaining didn’t create this mess. It may, however, help fix some of it while we continue to demand a new system built by our members that works.

Better Together.

Debi Daviau

President


30 August 2024
Every victory in labour rights, from the weekend to workplace safety standards, came from workers standing together. Today, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, and we're fighting for the future of work.

21 August 2024
The past has shown us the cost of silence and complicity. Let us ensure that our actions today reflect our commitment to justice and equity for all.

7 February 2023
On January 30, 2023 PIPSC President Jennifer Carr, accompanied by Jordan McAuley, our specialist on outsourcing, testified before the House of Common Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (OGGO) about the now-infamous McKinsey contracts awarded by the federal government.

16 January 2023
Any return to office policy must “consider the nature of each department’s work and the services they provide to Canadians.” Those are Treasury Board President Mona Fortier’s own words, and we urge her to heed them, said presidents of PIPSC and CAPE in an opinion letter published in The Ottawa Citizen.

4 January 2023
The New Year is here and I want to take this opportunity to sincerely wish you all the very best in 2023. Our challenges can definitely lead to positive outcomes for our members.

3 November 2022
On October 28, 2022 President Carr met for the first time with Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier to discuss a number of important issues that affect our members, public services and Canadian taxpayers.