A 12 months after getting promoted, public servant hasn’t seen pay enhance

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Final February, Megan McMaster was promoted. Nearly 12 months later, she nonetheless hasn’t seen a bump in her pay.

McMaster modified jobs inside the federal public service final 12 months, leaving Employment and Social Growth Canada for a place at Pure Sources Canada. Whereas the brand new function was supposed to come back with a pay elevate of $3,000 a 12 months, McMaster has but to see any more cash on her paycheques because the Pay Centre has but to switch her file.

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“I’m nonetheless receiving pay at my earlier stage and function,” McMaster mentioned, including that she was anxious she’d must face logistical nightmares all through her profession. “I nonetheless technically report back to my earlier division, I nonetheless work in Quebec, although I moved to Ontario, so I’m additionally nonetheless paying Quebec taxes.”

“As a result of I’m not an worker of this division, I’m not within the system. I simply don’t exist, actually.”

It’s been virtually eight years because the Phoenix pay system was launched in 2016.

Alexandre Baillairgé-Charbonneau, spokeperson for Public Providers and Procurement Canada, mentioned the variety of excellent monetary transactions — together with pay points or errors — past the conventional workload was 229,000 as of Dec. 20, 2023. That was down from 384,000 in 2018.

“Of the 229,000 excellent monetary transactions, roughly 2,200 are from 2016,” Baillairgé-Charbonneau mentioned. “We now have made progress, as this represents a discount of 51 (per cent) in comparison with the 4,400 transactions a 12 months in the past. Our aim is to course of all 2016 excellent monetary transactions by March 31, 2024.”

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Baillairgé-Charbonneau mentioned PSPC’s aim was to course of new transactions inside service requirements of 20 to 45 days, 95 per cent of the time. In 2023, he mentioned, service requirements have been met 83 per cent of the time.

Transfers may be complicated and take longer to course of, Baillairgé-Charbonneau mentioned. In 2023, 77 per cent of transfers have been accomplished inside the service commonplace of 45 enterprise days, down from 84 per cent in 2022 and 2021, and up from 75 per cent in 2020. Baillairgé-Charbonneau mentioned the lower was as a result of “vital enhance” within the variety of complete transactions acquired on the Pay Centre.

“For instance, delays usually occur when an worker has different excellent transactions that require processing previous to finishing the switch,” he mentioned. “House departments additionally play a job and have to make sure that transactions are submitted on time. If submitted late, transactions could require complicated guide processing and might delay the method.”

Baillairgé-Charbonneau mentioned the division employed 450 compensation advisers between April and September 2023, with new hires all engaged on both lowering excellent transactions or processing new transactions. An extra 200 advisers shall be employed within the subsequent two months, he mentioned.

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The federal government spokesperson mentioned PSPC was additionally “investing in robotics” to automate extremely repetitive guide pay transactions, which had contributed to the processing of greater than 120,000 transactions since November 2020. He mentioned the federal government was additionally engaged on leveraging synthetic intelligence to assist employees course of transactions and scale back potential errors, with potential options more likely to be carried out quickly.

“All public servants should obtain correct and well timed pay for his or her work,” Baillairgé-Charbonneau mentioned, noting that the variety of transactions which were processed has elevated over the previous two years. “The Authorities of Canada stays dedicated to processing excellent transactions. The variety of transactions acquired on the Pay Centre has elevated considerably and has restricted our potential to cut back excellent transactions from earlier years.”

Chris Aylward, nationwide president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, mentioned it was “outrageous” that federal public service employees nonetheless continued to expertise issues associated to the system.

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“With out confidence within the pay system, employees proceed to endure undue hardship,” Aylward mentioned. “Careers are placed on maintain as workers flip down promotions and transfers for concern of being ‘Phoenixed.’”

The union head mentioned PSAC continued to name on the federal government to rent extra compensation employees to cut back the variety of Phoenix circumstances created and to sort out the backlog, negotiate extra damages for ongoing pay points and launch a nationwide inquiry into the Phoenix pay debacle to keep away from future pay disasters. He mentioned the federal government additionally wanted to “seek the advice of and have interaction” with unions on the Subsequent Era pay system.

In coping with transactions, Baillairgé-Charbonneau mentioned PSPC’s first precedence was to course of incoming work to make sure public servants obtain their common biweekly pay. He mentioned the “most crucial excellent transactions” have been processed first, prioritized by transaction age and affect on the worker.

“Because of this transactions which have the most important affect on pay are prioritized,” Baillairgé-Charbonneau mentioned. “For instance, incapacity administration, severance funds, depart with revenue averaging, and maternity and parental depart transactions are among the many highest precedence transactions. Different transactions that may have a sustained affect on pay are the second-highest stage of precedence and embrace transactions similar to hires, transfers, depart with or with out pay, and benefit-related transactions.”

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McMaster mentioned she had referred to as the Pay Centre each month since she began working in her new function, and had reached out to senior administration and her member of Parliament’s workplace. At this level, McMaster mentioned she was coping with “built-up frustration,” having confronted a number of pay-related points since Phoenix was launched, together with being paid at a stage “far decrease” than she was imagined to.

“Every time I’m informed that there’s no service commonplace (or that) it takes so long as it takes, which might not be a suitable reply from some other employer,” McMaster mentioned, including that the standing of her file had indicated since final February that her request could be assigned to a compensation adviser for evaluation. “I’m type of fed up.”

McMaster mentioned she may file a grievance, however it might be filed in opposition to her employer, who isn’t at fault.

“They’ve all been responsive and tried to assist nevertheless they’ll, however the Pay Centre holds all of the playing cards,” she mentioned. “It’s not concerning the cash. It’s quite a lot of time spent, to be trustworthy, having to combat for what’s owed to you.”

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