On behalf of our members, the Institute continues to express our very serious concerns with the new Phoenix pay system. The government has acknowledged these concerns but insists there are steps in place to resolve them as outlined.
We encourage members who have an issue with their pay to submit all requests by email to the Pay Centre, along with the required Pay Action Request (PAR) Form. If a request is received without this form or mandatory fields are not completed, it will be rejected by the system automatically and returned to the sender.
We will continue to monitor this issue closely and to press the employer to resolve these issues quickly.
In the event that your pay issue is not resolved, we encourage you to contact your local Employment Relations Officer (ERO) in the regional office nearest to you to help resolve the issue and access emergency or priority pay where the situation warrants.
Since writing to you last week about problems with the federal government’s new Phoenix pay system, I have met personally with both Treasury Board officials and the Deputy Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) to express our very serious concerns with the new system and to urge that its continued rollout be delayed until the current problems can be resolved.
The government has acknowledged these concerns but has said it will continue to rollout the new system. We have been assured that these problems can be resolved. The experience of the Institute, and of other federal unions, is that the new system is causing a wide range of problems in pay for federal employees – from numerous instances of underpayment and overpayment to extreme cases of employees not being paid for weeks. As a result, we are concerned that these problems may persist and even increase in the coming weeks, despite the hiring of new case administrators to assist with resolving problems.
I would therefore like to urge all members who do encounter problems with their pay due to the new system to carefully monitor their pay records and, in the event of discrepancies or other problems, to email the Pay Centre directly, notifying them of the problem. The government claims that doing so will result in an answer to specific issues within 48 hours.
It goes without saying that the employees at the Miramichi pay centre are not to blame for the current situation. These problems have their origin in ill-conceived cuts and an ongoing failure by the Employer to adequately staff and resource workers at the Pay Centre.
We will continue to monitor this issue closely and to press the Employer to resolve these issues quickly.
In the event that your pay issue is not resolved, I encourage you to contact your local Employment Relations Officer (ERO) in the regional office nearest to you to help resolve the issue and access emergency or priority pay where the situation warrants.
Federal employees are understandably concerned about the ongoing consolidation of the government’s payroll services and the introduction of the Phoenix system. It’s no secret that this initiative has been beset by difficulties since the first government departments began their transition to the new system a couple of years ago. While the Treasury Board (TB) has tried to downplay the extent of these problems, issues such as the timely payment of public servants, pay errors, and the lack of resources and training available to employees involved in the project were so widespread that bargaining agents met with TB representatives at the time to outline their concerns over the situation.
In this context, I share many of our members’ concerns at the planned transition of over 60 remaining federal organizations to the Phoenix system later this April. I have therefore written to Judy Foote, Minister of Public Services and Procurement urging her to postpone this transition until these issues have been resolved. In the meantime, the Institute will continue to closely monitor the situation in the months ahead and, together with other bargaining agents, intervene as needed.
Better Together!
Debi Daviau,
President
PDF Version
April 15, 2016
The Hon Judy Foote
Minister of Public Services and Procurement
11 Laurier Street Place du Portage, Phase III, Floor 18A1
Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0S5
I am writing today concerning a critical issue to my members, the timely access to their pay. As I am sure you can understand, this is an issue of much concern to them and their families. As the President of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), I represent upwards of 50,000 employees in the federal public service and I thank you for the opportunity to bring this matter to your attention.
We understand that the workers at the Pay Centre in Miramichi have been doing their best to pay federal public employees in a timely and accurate fashion. Nevertheless, we believe that inadequate resources and flaws in the new Phoenix pay system are preventing this from happening.
I have heard from countless members of the pay problems they are facing. These include delayed pay (often over consecutive pay periods), overpayments, and much evidence of a system that is not meeting the multiple pay situations, such as shift work, our members experience. As you can imagine, irregular pay can result in direct payments for mortgages, utilities, childcare and other day-to-day expenses being bounced and resulting in direct costs to our members.
We believe immediate action is required and want to first call on your government to delay the next phase of transfers to the pay centre scheduled for this month. We also would like to see departments put in place a process for advancing emergency funds for those employees who are forced to go without pay because of problems with the system.
The current situation is unacceptable and must be fixed as soon as possible. I look forward to your prompt reply and to learn what steps your department is taking to remedy this situation.
