Question

any suggestions for going forward about phoenix pay system?

Answer 1

The Phoenix pay system is a payroll processing system for Canadian federal government employees, run by Public Services and Procurement Canada. The Public Service Pay Centre is located in Miramichi, New Brunswick. It was introduced as part of then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Transformation of Pay Administration Initiative, intended to replace Canada's 40-year old system with a new, cost-saving "automated, off-the-shelf commercial system." Phoenix has caused pay problems to close to 80 percent of the federal government’s 290,000 public servants through underpayments, over-payments, and non-payments.

Some employees consulted believe that Phoenix should be scrapped, since it causes too many errors and requires too much manual intervention for pay prior to the current period. However, some employees believe that Phoenix could be kept for departments with simpler compensation models as long as the work of human resources employees is integrated into that of the Pay Centre and by providing all staff with proper training. Other employees believe that the government should resolve the problems with Phoenix, as the system provides interesting opportunities; processing routine pay transactions is four times faster with Phoenix.

The first priority in addressing the failure of the Phoenix pay system is for the government to support its employees.“A payroll system in any organization is one of the fundamental relationships that exist between an employer and an employee, and that is a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. When an employer doesn’t live up to its side of that relationship and provide the fair day’s pay, you are undermining the fundamental relationship that exists between an employer and employee.”

suggestion-1 That Public Services and Procurement Canada identify priorities for processing outstanding pay requests and that it establish targets for the time to process these requests.

suggestion-2 That the government reassess the adequacy of training provided to compensation advisors, human resources staff, and public servants, as well as its staffing levels for compensation advisors and human resources staff.

suggestion-3 That the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat annually provide Parliament in its departmental results report the government’s total costs associated with the Phoenix pay system.

suggestion-4 That Public Services and Procurement Canada explore the possibility of alternative pay solutions for departments and agencies whose complex pay rules make the use of Phoenix difficult.

suggestion-5 That, before embarking on a future pay transformation initiative, Public Services and Procurement Canada submit a report to Parliament outlining the options to replace Phoenix, including the costs of each option, examining the expected impact on employees, as well as setting out the monitoring and project management measures that would be put in place to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Phoenix pay system.