Guards brace for pay glitches
New system for payroll under fire
Canada’s 7,500 federal prison guards “hope for the best but expect the worse” when their pay is turned over to a new automated system this week, says union officials.
Doug White, president of the Union for Canadian Corrections Officers Atlantic Region, said federal employees who work in 24-7 operational jobs in the 67 departments moving to the new pay system called Phoenix, on Thursday are braced for their paycheques to be late, botched or both.
“We know it won’t be an easy transition,” said White.
Public servants have been complaining about pay problems since Public Services and Procurement, the department overseeing the massive pay transformation project, began consolidating operations in Miramichi, N.B., as the first stage of the system overhaul.
The union representing the 550 compensation advisers at the Miramichi pay centre asked the government to delay the rollout until they can catch up on files. But Public Services and Procurement is pushing ahead.
The move will add 170,000 files to what unions call a congested and overloaded system that has left untold public servants unpaid, paid too little or paid too much. The first payday with all departments on Phoenix will be May 4.
Public Services Minister Judy Foote said the department is monitoring the rollout closely to “to ensure our employees have the support and tools they need to do the important work that is being asked of them during this transition.”
The department has taken steps to address the backlog of files at the pay centre and resolve any problems, such as hiring 40 more trained compensation advisers at Miramichi and 50 employees to help answer phones at the pay centre. It is also adding “automation” improvements.
“We have taken a number of steps to minimize and resolve any disruptions to employee pay during the transition to the new system. We are working collaboratively at all levels to resolve any issues that may arise,” said Foote in an email.
The biggest complaints about the new pay system seem to come from operational employees who have complicated schedules and pay rules specific to their jobs.
Prison guards have complained about waiting for months for overtime and extra duty pay, such as shift differential, so half expect those problems to multiply when Correctional Service Canada moves to Phoenix, said White. He said guards used to wait three months for overtime and shift differential but those payments now take six months or more.
White said most are just hoping Phoenix will at least churn out their basic pay without a hitch.
“It’s all a big unknown, We are really hoping our regular paycheques won’t be affected.”
Correctional Service Canada joins other highly operational departments such as Transport Canada, Parks Canada and Public Services and Procurement that will move to Phoenix this week.
The Canada Revenue Agency, in the thick of tax season, is also in the rollout. It employs a large number of term and casual employees.
Such workers have faced pay problems in other departments when their contracts are renewed.
Anecdotally, it seems the new system works for anyone who gets a regular paycheque with no extraduty payments.
Employees used to get a single paycheque and separate payments followed for extra duty such as overtime, shift differential or acting pay. With Phoenix, all those payments are supposed to be consolidated in one cheque.
But it appears the glitches begin with changes, adjustments or supplementary payments. There have also been problems with new hires and terminations, which require someone to activate the transactions.
June Winger, executive vicepresident of the Union of National Defence Employees, said she has worked on nothing but resolving pay problems among the union’s 15,000 members since the first rollout.
She typically gets half a dozen new complaints every day.
She said a big problem is getting people back on the payroll who are returning to work after medical or disability leave.
“I hope this is the worst it is going to get,” she said. “I hope this isn’t considered an acceptable failure rate (for a new system.)
The department and union are at odds over the rollout. The unions feel the new system isn’t working like it should, and should be delayed until the bugs are worked out and people master the changes.
The department, however, insists the system is working and no “major systemic problems” have been found. It claims to have received 300 complaints on 625,000 transactions, which were dealt with as priorities.
The department says any glitches are largely the result of a huge learning curve for such a large and complex system that will be worked out as people master it.
In some cases, the problem is employees and departments not providing timely information for the centre to process payments properly and on time.