Every day, PSAC members come to our Phoenix team for help with their pay issues when they have nowhere else to turn. PSAC has been helping federal public service workers navigate the broken pay system since it was launched in 2016, and they’ve seen it all. Overpayments, underpayments, zero pay for weeks on end, retroactive pay adjustments, incorrect pay grades, pay files that need to be transferred from one department to another, you name it.

Behind every pay problem is a frustrated PSAC member at their wits’ end after going weeks, months and even years without the government fixing their pay issues. Our dedicated team supports hundreds of members every month that are affected by the Phoenix pay disaster.

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When members reach out to us, we get the ball rolling, escalating pay problems to a dedicated client team at the Public Service Pay Centre in Miramichi, New Brunswick, and we get results. Cases our Phoenix team escalate are usually corrected within 60 days – often much sooner – meaning workers get back what they’re owed.

"Members are always appreciative of our time and dedication to resolving their pay problems," said Donna Lackie, one of PSAC’s Phoenix experts. “They feel like their concerns are finally being heard after so many years of silence from the government."

PSAC has helped more than 10,000 members fix their Phoenix issues, whether it was with their pay, pension, health care benefits or severance.

"Our team is proud of the support we provide to members, and we stay in touch with them until their pay issues are finally resolved and they get all the money owed to them," added Lackie.

PSAC leadership and our Phoenix team also meets regularly with Public Services and Procurement Canada – which manages the pay system – and Treasury Board to troubleshoot and provide feedback on Phoenix pay issues and the development of the next pay system.

But with a Phoenix backlog of 141,000 cases, including 35,000 retirees or former members still waiting for their pay issues to be fixed so that they can move on to the next chapter of their lives, the government continues to let federal public service workers down.

We’re calling on the federal government to urgently hire more compensation advisors to handle pay issues as they happen and to eliminate the backlog of cases. Learn more about PSAC’s key demands to address ongoing Phoenix pay issues for tens of thousands of workers.

If you have a pay issue you haven’t been able to resolve with the Pay Centre and would like our Phoenix team to escalate your case, reach out to us and select the Phoenix problem you’re experiencing from the dropdown menu.