CHRISTMAS ON $89.27
Government’s pay system is the Scrooge that keeps tormenting public servants
Public servant Tammy Polomeno, a single mother of two young children, got her final paycheque before Christmas on Wednesday. ‘I started crying,’ she says. Thanks to the Phoenix pay system fiasco, she has been shortchanged about $10,000 over the past 16 months. Polomeno expects to get an emergency advance on Friday.
Eighty-nine dollars was deposited into Tammy Polomeno’s bank account Wednesday. It’s the last paycheque the federal public servant, a single mother of two young children, will get before Christmas.
The Phoenix pay system has become Ottawa’s Scrooge.
“They don’t understand the repercussions,” Polomeno said Tuesday. “I don’t know how I’m going to get Christmas for my kids.”
Polomeno, 33, is a paralegal for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, employed by the federal government for 11 years. She has a three-year-old son and five-year-old daughter.
For 16 months, she said, she was underpaid as a result of the terrible Phoenix system.
Imagine being shortchanged more than $1,000 each month by your employer. That’s what’s Polomeno said she dealt with.
Someone at the pay centre must have finally acted on Polomeno’s cries for help. Two weeks ago, her salary was put back to the right level.
But for the next two pay periods, she’ll have to live with $89.27 paycheques because the government is now looking to recoup some emergency salary advances Polomeno received more than a year ago.
Polomeno learned Monday about the two piddly paycheques. She logged onto her computer to check her pay status and saw the pending deposit.
“I started crying,” she said. “It was awful.”
To make matters worse, Polomeno’s mortgage payment was due Wednesday.
Polomeno said she talked to her manager, who then spoke to human resources.
“The only thing they can do is request another emergency salary advance,” Polomeno said.
Polomeno expects to receive an advance by Friday.
She’s also contacted her union for help.
Andre Picotte, national president for the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, confirmed union officials spoke with Polomeno on Wednesday, and said one of the union’s labour relations officers is “looking at” her file.
“Our members are victims of Phoenix like everybody else in the federal public service,” said Picotte, whose union primarily represents federal government translators and economists.
In the meantime, Picotte said, the union is working on a “definitive solution (to alleviate) the financial hardships endured by our members because of Phoenix.”
Polomeno has sent letters to department heads and even to the prime minister about her Phoenix story.
The ugly tales have piled up across the federal government. Public servants are flagging underpayments and overpayments. Wonky transactions are in the hundreds of thousands. The federal government is on the hook for more than $500 million to fix Phoenix.
For workers getting sandbagged by the pay system, it’s been miserable.
Polomeno said she’s still owed $10,000 for all those shortchanged paycheques. And now there’s Christmas. Polomeno said she’s trying to figure out how to get through it all.
“I don’t know at this moment.”