Phoenix pay woes: union of federal employees mobilizing ahead of 2019 election

MONTREAL — Frustrated by the Liberal government’s inability to fix the Phoenix pay system, federal civil servants are mobilizing ahead of the 2019 election.

“In Quebec, the mobilization is starting,” Magali Picard of the Public Service Alliance of Canada said Wednesday.

“If the government wants to maintain 40 seats in Quebec, they better fix Phoenix because our people are going to be serious in the upcoming election campaign.”

About 180,000 workers — or one-half of all federal civil servants — have reported being overpaid, underpaid or not paid at all since Phoenix went live nearly two years ago.

A report by the auditor general in November indicated that, as of June 2017, 59,000 employees owed the government a total of $295 million as a result of overpayments. Another 51,000 employees who were underpaid were owed $228 million at that time, the report said.

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The union is collecting signatures for a petition demanding the federal government fix the problems.

Of the 6,200 signatures already collected, 60 per cent are from Quebec.

“We, the undersigned, residents of Canada, call upon the government of Canada to take immediate and drastic measures to ensure all federal government employees be paid as per their work contracts and collective agreements,” part of the petition reads.

Eighty per cent of federal employees from Quebec have had issues with their pay, Picard said, adding she regularly hears from members across the province who are ready to mobilize against the government during the next election.

“Our people are exasperated,” she said. “They don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

She gave the example of one federal employee who mistakenly received $30,000 in his bank account. When he called his employer to say he would write a cheque for that amount, he was told he had to reimburse $39,000 — the gross amount.

“We’re telling the government, ‘It’s unacceptable that workers are advancing you money,”’ Picard said.

The union has already taken the government to court for moral damages caused by the problems in the Phoenix pay system. The case has not yet been heard.

Lia Levesque, The Canadian Press