Ron Ward The Canadian Press Purchased by Stephen Harper's government to save money by centralizing payroll for the federal public service, the Phoenix system has resulted in thousands of overpayments, absences of pay for months and unpaid bonuses.
The Phoenix pay system celebrates its seventh anniversary on February 28 and there are still 418,000 pay issues waiting to be addressed, reports the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
Some of these pay issues date back to 2016; others are recent and they continue to accumulate, explained in an interview Tuesday Yvon Barrière, regional executive vice-president of PSAC-Quebec.
Phoenix is this payroll system created by IBM which had been purchased by Stephen Harper's government to save money by centralizing the federal public service payroll service. It resulted in thousands of overpayments, absence of pay for months, unpaid bonuses and other failures.
The PSAC had negotiated a compensation of $2,500 for its members, covering the fiscal years 2016-2017 until 2019-2020, but as the problems persist, it is busy negotiating the parameters of a second compensation program, indicated Mr. Barrière.
The federal government has launched an overpayment recovery program, but time is running out, as there is a six-year statute of limitations.
