A day after the federal government announced $431 million to fix its problem-plagued Phoenix payroll software, federal employees rallied in Victoria and called on the government to scrap the system.
Tens of thousands of federal employees have complained of being underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all since the pay system was launched in 2016.
Steve Kelly, a Department of National Defence civilian employee based in Esquimalt, said he was overpaid by about $3,000 during his parental leave.
Deductions were taken off his paycheque, but the clawbacks didn’t stop once he was caught up. Now he is owed $22,000, causing major stress for him and his family.
He has reported the issue to the call centre in Miramichi, N.B., but the issue hasn’t been fixed.
“I haven’t had a full paycheque now in over a year and a half,” said Kelly, who has a two-year-old daughter.
On Wednesday, Kelly stood in his navy and gold uniform outside the Public Works and Government Services Canada building on Government Street alongside more than 100 other federal employees who faced similar frustrations.
Similar rallies took place in at least a dozen cities across the country.
They were organized by the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents 14,000 members in B.C., including staff with the RCMP, Department of National Defence, Canada Border Services Agency, Canadian Coast Guard and other federal bureaucrats.
In a December survey, 60 per cent of the union’s members reported a personal issue with the system, spokesman Patrick Bragg said.
In all, tens of thousands of civil servants have been affected by the pay problems since the system was formally launched two years ago.
Bob Lacquement, 63, retired in May after 17 years of working in the dockyard at CFB Esquimalt and has still not seen a penny of his severance pay.
“It’s sitting in someone else’s bank account, not mine,” he said.
Mark Eso, president of the Victoria Labour Council, estimates that nearly 80 per cent of federal public servants in B.C. have been paid incorrectly.
“It’s not acceptable in this day and age that people would not know every two weeks what they’re going to get paid, or if they’re going to get paid at all, if they’re going to be underpaid or overpaid,” he said.
The government said it plans to spend $16 million over two years to consult with experts, public-sector unions and technology firms about replacing the IBM-built system with a new one.
In a post-budget event in Ottawa on Wednesday, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau acknowledged that the system is flawed.
“What we’ve said over the long term is that we need to find a new approach — a new approach that works,” he said.
The pay system, approved in 2015 by the previous Conservative government, was meant to save an estimated $70 million annually, as 2,700 payroll clerks were laid off and pay systems across dozens of departments were streamlined.
Instead, it has cost the government almost $1 billion, including $460 million already spent to roll out the pay system and fix subsequent problems.
“That’s outrageous. Think of the things you can do with $1 billion on housing, homelessness, child care,” said NDP MP Randall Garrison, who estimates at least 1,000 people in his Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke riding have experienced pay irregularities.
Garrison said he has talked to employees who quit their DND job out of frustration or refused to take a promotion to avoid pay mistakes.
“The government has wasted two years trying to paste this one together and it hasn’t worked,” Garrison said from Ottawa. “The $400 million will be spent patching, not fixing, the Phoenix system, and that means further and further delays.”
The opposition New Democrats introduced a motion calling on the government to compensate and apologize to civil servants, but that motion was defeated Wednesday in the Commons by a margin of 159-135.
Tuesday’s budget also earmarked $5.5 million over two years for the Canada Revenue Agency to deal with income tax reassessments as a result of the pay issues.
Bill Miles, a civilian employee at CFB Esquimalt, has seen irregularities in his pay for the past two years and has no idea if the amount on his T4 slip is correct.
“My taxes are all screwed to hell. CRA is going to say: ‘We want our money.’ Do I really owe that money? Everyone’s taxes will probably need a forensic audit.”
As he stood among fellow public-sector workers at the rally, Miles was exasperated that employees are the ones who bear the financial and emotional burden of the payroll problems.
“This isn’t my screwup. The government has screwed this up royally. It’s ridiculous.”
— With files from The Canadian Press
