New Phoenix pay issues emerge

OTTAWA — Federal government managers were warned this week of a possible surge in emergency pay requests from civil servants over the holidays after new issues were discovered with the troubled Phoenix pay system.

Managers were to receive lists of “low pay or no pay employees” by Friday, and were being encouraged to reach out to those who might need help.

“We would encourage you to reach out to employees on this list to determine if an emergency salary advance or priority payment may be required on Dec. 27, and if any special measures to provide the payment may be needed given the holiday season and related absences and travel,” said a memo from Les Linklater, an associate deputy minister at Public Works and Government Services Canada, made public Friday.

The memo was issued Wednesday after problems were discovered in processing of pay requests for the final payday of the year, Dec. 27.

Officials said some transactions entered into the pay system in early November weren’t processed, creating a new backlog of problem files.

“The Phoenix pay system encountered technical and administrative issues with a module that affected performance of the system, in particular with a program in Phoenix that processes employee submitted transactions ,” Public Services and Procurement Canada said in a statement.

“Some transactions entered in Phoenix as of Nov. 1 … were not processed … This led to processing challenges for the Dec. 27 pay run.”