Backlog of federal pay transactions increases

Shift in resources blamed for latest Phoenix setback

OTTAWA • Problems with the federal government’s public service pay system got worse over the last month as pay system employees struggled to process changes to civil service contracts, the department responsible for the system revealed Monday.

The backlog of pay transactions carried out through the Phoenix pay system that went beyond normal processing times increased by 9,000 from July to 237,000 after two months of decline, newly released figures show.

Judy Foote, the minister responsible for the pay system, resigned as Public Services and Procurement minister last week for family health reasons. She had been on temporary leave from the cabinet post since April.

Her department had been whittling the backlog down since June when it reached 265,000 pay transactions that went beyond the normal monthly workload of about 80,000. The number of files dropped to 228,000 as of July 26 before rising again over the last four weeks.

Officials blamed the increase on the need to shift

THIS SHIFTING OF RESOURCES AFFECTED OUR ABILITY TO REDUCE THE (BACKLOG).

pay system employees to handling pay changes resulting from the ratification of several big public service contracts, many of which went into effect in late June.

“This increase was expected as we focused our efforts on ensuring employees are paid what they are owed as a result of recent collective agreements and within legislated timelines,” said a statement from the department.

The 19 collective agreements signed — with another eight to come — require the government to make retroactive payments, enact salary increases and pay other allowances negotiated as part of the new contracts, all within legislated timelines.

“To meet these timelines, we dedicated a number of compensation advisers to work almost exclusively on these payments,” the department said. “This shifting of resources affected our ability to reduce the number of pay transactions at the Public Service Pay Centre.”

The department said it expected the situation to continue into the fall, suggesting the backlog could get worse before it gets better.

The former Conservative government introduced the system as a way to standardize how federal employees are paid. Phoenix was also expected to save millions.

However, the system has been plagued with problems, leaving many federal employees underpaid, overpaid or in some cases not paid at all — sometimes for months.