As the Phoenix pay system marks its ninth anniversary, PSAC continues to call for compensation for tens of thousands of federal public service workers still being impacted by pay problems.

“The federal government continues to downplay the severity of the Phoenix fiasco, and the workers who keep Canada running are paying the price,” said Sharon DeSousa, PSAC National President. “For nearly a decade, this government has failed its most basic obligation to workers – paying them properly and on time for the critical work they do.”

Despite promises to introduce artificial intelligence and automation to eliminate the backlog of Phoenix pay issues, it remains virtually untouched, and targets continue to be missed. As of January 29, there are still 372,000 outstanding cases — a number that has barely budged over the past five years, with many workers waiting years for their pay issues to be resolved.

“Every single pay issue in the backlog directly impacts a worker and their family – people who have waited years to retire, changed jobs but still aren’t being paid correctly, or returned from maternity leave wondering if their pay will be accurate,” added DeSousa. “Three out of four cases aren’t resolved on time, and the delays are only getting worse. At the current pace, it will take another decade to resolve every pay case in the backlog.”

Workers worried about Phoenix replacement

PSAC members who participated in recent demonstrations of Dayforce, the promised Phoenix replacement being tested in several departments, reported ongoing glitches and widespread issues, proving that the system has its own problems that still need to be addressed.

As work moves forward with testing of Dayforce, the government must learn from its failures with Phoenix — or risk making the same mistakes again. PSAC will continue to hold the government accountable and push for a pay system that truly works for federal workers.

Additional Phoenix damages

PSAC has formally requested to begin negotiating an extension to the Phoenix general damages and the severe damages claims process secured in 2020 that compensated workers for hardships caused by the Phoenix pay system from 2016 to 2020. PSAC is seeking to extend that agreement from April 1, 2020, to the present day and beyond to compensate members for the ongoing pain and suffering still caused by Phoenix. Until federal public service workers are paid properly and on time – every single time – workers deserve additional damages.

The numbers behind the crisis

To highlight the scope of the crisis and its impact on workers, PSAC has launched a Phoenix pay dashboard. This new tool showcases the latest data on the backlog — hundreds of thousands of outstanding cases, long-standing delays, and unresolved pay issues that should have been fixed years ago. Some of those numbers, include: 

• Only 26% of pay cases are processed on time, according to government service standards. 
• Nearly 200,000 pay issues have been in the backlog for more than a year, with some cases stretching back more than five years. 
• More than 51,000 unresolved terminations, including retirees and students, are still waiting for severance, final pay, and vacation payouts, preventing them from moving on with their lives. 
• Nearly 9,000 unresolved transfers for workers who have changed departments, been promoted, or taken maternity leave, with some waiting up to two years to be paid correctly.