Hundreds of employees come forward with new Phoenix pay problems

Senior bureaucratsrevealed Thursday that hundreds more federalpublic servantshave come forward to report they haven't been paid at all the latest in the Phoenix payroll system controversy.

An additional589 employees say they've gone months without a single paycheque,and an additional 1,026 people, withproblems relating to long-term leave, sick leave and maternity leave, are still awaiting payment, deputy minister for public services and procurementMarie Lemay told reporters.

More than 80,000 public servants have some form of pay problem after the rollout of the troubled Phoenix system in February of this year. The figure could be even higher,as it is based onpublic servants self-reporting problems to their departments.

"I can't guarantee you today thatwe're aware of 100 per cent of the issues.While we're making progress, we're expecting that these cases will continue to emerge but in diminishing numbers over time," Lemay said. "I want to remind public servants that they need to keep reporting the pay problems as soon as possible so we can quickly respond."

Later, at an emergency meeting of the government operations and estimates committee, Lemaytold MPs thatthe Treasury Board Secretariat is considering some sort of compensation for public servants who have racked up expenses interest on their credit cards, or overdraft banking feesas a result of not being paid for a prolonged period.

"Discussions are ongoing between Treasury Board and the unions.We're very seized with these issues we're asking people to keep whatever piece of justification that they can, like keep track of what it is costing them," she said after a question from Liberal MP Raj Grewal.

• Phoenix public service pay problems could last until October
• PHOENIX FALLING |'That's a huge chunk of money': worker laid off during Phoenix overhaul also owed $100K
• Public Service Minister JudyFooteoffers emergency paychequesamid Phoenix debacle

In an effort to deal with the mounting caseload,the government is also setting up temporary pay offices in Winnipeg, Montreal and Shawinigan, Que. Those offices will be open by mid-August.

There are now 57 compensation advisers working at atemporary unit in Gatineau, Que., that was created earlier this monthto help sort through the backlog. A total of 115 advisers will be working in that office by the time it is fully staffed,although, the deputy minister said more staff could be added. These hastily assembled temporary pay centresare in addition to the primary pay office located in Miramichi, N.B., where all payroll operations were centralized in the Harper era in an effort to cut costs and pare back on compensation advisors.

Lemayalsosaidshe expects wait times to be driven down as a result of these new hires, especially for those people who have not beenpaid at all.

"There was a period when we were assessing the size of the issues and the backlog and everything. That was outstripping our capacity.We nowhave processes in place.If we have the information, they won't wait more than the nextpaycheque [to get paid],"Lemaysaid.

However,the largest union representing federal public servants, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, questioned that promise. "We wish we could trust this statement. The evidence so far says otherwise," PSAC said in a tweet.

All problems to be resolved by October: bureaucrats

As CBC News first reported, the government has also setup a call centre in Toronto, staffed by 100 temp-agency workers, to answer the phones from the thousands of workers calling in looking for answers. These temps, who do not have security clearance, and are largely charged with reading from a script, are in place to reassure bureaucrats and provide updates on their file. They will not be able to resolve pay problems, but will rather pass cases on to compensation advisers inMiramichi.

One of those scripts instructs them to tell public servants that if they informed the government of pay problems beforeJune 1,there would be some sort ofresolution by October.

"Yesterday the centre received 2,500 calls. None were dropped and the average wait times were under four minutes," Lemay said Thursday.

'I could care less'

The cost of all these new additional measures, including pay and call centres, has been tentatively pegged at $15 million to $20 million.Experts told the former Harpergovernmentthat implementing the Phoenix system wouldsavesome $70 million a year in payroll costs.

"It's fair to say this year we won't achieve that," Lemay said, and the cost could be pushed even higher. "I can tell you that our minister [JudyFoote] has told us that she wants this fixed. We're not being held back as to resources to put this to bed."

Foote affirmed that position late Thursday in an interview with Rosemary Barton on CBC News Network'sPower & Politics. "Clearly, we won'tget the $70million this year and I could care less. My focus is to get the system right, to make sure that people get paid. So I am not about savings, Iam about fixing Phoenix and making sure that employees get paid."

Public Services Minister Judy Foote on Phoenix pay system problems

8 years ago

Duration 11:17

'We're going to fix this,' Foote says as hundreds more federal public servants come forward to report they haven't been paid at all .

Lemay told reporterslast weekthat 720 federal employeesmostlynewhiresand students had contacted the government about not being paid underthe Phoenix pay system.

She confirmed Thursday that486 of them received alump sum of back pay this week. An additional 138 will be paid on Aug. 10.

Hundreds still await a cheque because there is a dearth of information of just how much pay they're entitled to, Lemay said.

Phoenix was initiated by Stephen Harper'sConservative governmentand was rolled out in phases underTrudeau's watch earlier this year amidwarnings from PSAC, which said there would beproblems with the new system.

Top bureaucrats responsible for Phoenix admitted Thursday that they ignored warnings from PSAC in April to halt therolloutof the second phase of the pay system.They also saidtheycouldn't recall if they had briefed Foote on problems the union had flagged.

"The recommendation to the minister was clearly 'go ahead,'"Lemayconceded.

"I was told things were ready to go people who have been working on this since 2009 assured me we didn't have to worry," Foote said.

Privacy breach

It was also revealed Thursday that there has been an additional privacy breach of public servants' information.

Four federal employees hadaccess tonames, pay figures and identification numbers, despite not being authorized to view that information. The breach has been deemed "avery low risk."

• Ottawa hires temps to staff Phoenix call centres as pay problems could last until October
• If you want to add your story to our coverage,pleaseemailus

Want to share your own story?Emailus

Phoenix pay problems to cost millions

8 years ago

Duration 1:51

Deputy Minister of Public Services and Procurement Marie Lemay predicts the pay problem affecting 80,000 government workers could cost upwards of $20 million.