Money for tax workers

Increase needed to help staff deal with Phoenix payroll

Canada Revenue Agency and the union representing taxation workers have agreed to a temporary incentive package to boost pay for current employees and recruits to cover the extra work caused by the troubled Phoenix pay system.

Union of Taxation Employees national president Marc Briere, in a letter to members posted on the union’s website, says employees have worked hard under “stressful and demanding situations” to deal with problems created by the federal pay system, which was implemented about two years ago.

Since that time, federal employees across the country have been plagued with pay problems including complete lack of payment, significant delays, overpayment, overtime and tax errors, benefit errors and other glitches.

“In a renewed spirit of meaningful consultation with the employer, the parties agreed to a number of incentives to help enhance the recruitment and retention of our compensation advisers, and allow us to continue to address the challenging pay administration issues related to the implementation of Phoenix,” Briere wrote to union members.

The incentive package is offered to three levels of existing compensation advisers, new recruits and former retirees who return, and includes a one-time payment of $4,000, all overtime paid at double time instead of time-and-a-half, and carry-over provisions for vacation and compensatory time.

The deal was signed Jan. 31 and expires June 1, 2018, and is retroactive to Aug. 1 of last year.

The union represents more than 25,000 employees of Canada Revenue Agency.

No one from the revenue agency or the union was available for comment on Thursday.

The Phoenix system was purchased in early 2016 from IBM by the previous Conservative federal government to replace a decades-old system, and employees began reporting issues with their pay soon after.

The bulk of the problems have reportedly come through the public service pay centre in Miramichi, N.B.