Survey: 72 per cent of public servants affected by Phoenix pay problems
OTTAWA – The federal government’s annual employee survey shows that 72 per cent of public servants have been affected by Phoenix pay problems.
The massive survey canvassed more than 180,000 public servants last year on a wide range of subjects, including job satisfaction, management, harassment, discrimination, stress and pay problems.
Only one-quarter (25 per cent) of public servants reported being unaffected by issues with the Phoenix pay system; another 32 per cent said they were affected to a small extent.
A significant majority (59 per cent) said they had experienced a new Phoenix-related issue during the previous year. An almost equal number (56 per cent) said they still had unresolved pay problems.
The 2019 Public Service Employee Survey also found that more than half (51 per cent) of respondents said that concerns about Phoenix-related problems affected their decisions to change jobs within the public service. Many (74 per cent) cited pay-related issues as an ongoing source of stress.
Public Service Alliance of Canada National president Chris Aylward called the survey results “staggering.”
“Federal Public Service workers have been paying for the government’s mistakes for years, and it’s time for our government to start paying them back,” he said Tuesday.
Aylward called on the government to hire more staff to reduce the number of new Phoenix-related pay issues and to eliminate the 209,000-case backlog. He also demanded that the government set aside its “meagre” Phoenix damages offer — five days of paid leave — and offer an equal cash settlement to every federal worker.
The government’s 2019 employee survey found that, despite their pay problems, federal public servants are generally content with their jobs. The vast majority (81 per cent) said they liked their jobs, while a slightly smaller number (76 per cent) said they drew a sense of satisfaction from their work and felt valued (68 per cent) in the workplace.
The federal public service has 273,000 employees, about 41 per cent of whom work in the National Capital Region.
Estimates suggest it could take $2.6 billion to fix the Phoenix system — the end product of a series of management errors. In a 2018 report, former auditor general Michael Ferguson said a small management team within Public Services and Procurement Canada failed to obtain independent advice about the Phoenix system, paid little heed to the concerns of end users, ignored mounting risks, stripped key software features from the system when faced with escalating costs, and failed to test the system as a whole.
The federal government has reached deals on a Phoenix compensation package with unions that represent 146,000 current and former public servants. It provides them five days’ paid leave over the next four years, or the salary equivalent.