Payroll system still a mess
More than a dozen federal government employees rallied outside Service Canada in Kelowna Wednesday to the protest the government’s current payroll system, and demand compensation.
Since its launch in February 2016, tens of thousands of federal employees across Canada have been underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all.
“Our members, employees of the federal government, the largest employer of the country, have been patient, they’ve been suffering, they have anxiety,” Marc Briere, national president of the Union of Taxation Employees said in Kelowna Wednesday. “They check their paystubs every second week to see if they’re going to be able to have enough money to pay their bills.”
Employees who are overpaid are receiving a net amount and are being asked to reimburse the gross amount, which is sometimes thousands of dollars higher than what they were paid, said Briere.
In Tuesday’s federal budget, the government announced its intention to move away from the Phoenix pay system.
The government proposed to invest $16 million over two years “to work with experts, federal public sector unions and technology providers on a way forward for a new pay system.”
The budget also proposed an investment of $431.4 million over six years to fix existing issues.
To date, the government has earmarked more than $460 million to implement Phoenix and resolve some of the issues created by the system in the months since.
Briere said the government needs to take action as soon as possible to offer compensation for employees affected by the failed system.
“The farce has been going on for too long,” he said. “We need to think about compensation for all employees that suffered, and those who suffered more should get more compensation, and they should start to pay people on time.”
Briere said all employees can do now is to raise awareness of the issues and to apply pressure to the government.
“Nobody around the country, no matter where they work, deserves to be treated the way our members are being treated,” he said.