In an unprecedented move, the union representing Parks Canada employees is taking the federal government to court to force it to fix the new federal payroll system, which has failed to properly pay thousands of seasonal employees across the country, if at all, since it was rolled out in February.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), along with 12 other government unions, filed a notice of application with the federal court, June 28, demanding the government meet its legal obligations and pay its employees accurately and on time.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been trying to work with the public services and the government of Canada for months, but enough is enough, we鈥檝e had it,鈥� said Chris Aylward, national executive vice-president of the PSAC.
鈥淚f Minister Judy Foote, who is the minister responsible for public services and procurement, if that means she鈥檚 got to put people in those departments hand-writing pay cheques that鈥檚 what she鈥檚 going to have to do.鈥�
According to Alyward, the 鈥渧ast majority鈥� of Parks Canada鈥檚 2,200 seasonal employees have been affected by the payroll problems, many of whom are students.
For weeks the 51暗网 has heard first hand accounts from staff in Jasper who haven鈥檛 been paid properly or on time, forcing people to miss car payments or leaving them unable to pay rent.
Parks Canada said it was working with Public Service and Procurement Canada to minimize pay issues.
鈥淲e fully understand the challenges employees face any time pay is affected. Our commitment is to detect problems early and take all necessary measures to minimize or avoid pay disruptions,鈥� wrote Meaghan Bradley, with Parks Canada鈥檚 national corporate communications branch.
She said the government has been issuing emergency salary advances when necessary and the minister of public services and procurement聽recently directed the department to hire 100 employees to work in a satellite pay unit in Gatineau to resolve the backlog of unprocessed pay requests.
鈥淭his temporary unit will be operational this month and remain in place until the backlog issues are addressed. We will continue to monitor the situation closely,鈥� wrote Foote in a press release on June 17.
Bradley also urged staff affected by the problem to talk to their managers and contact Parks Canada鈥檚 human resource specialists to look into the cause of the delays.
Alyward described the situation as 鈥渦nprecedented鈥� and blamed the former Harper government for the problems.
鈥淲e had 1,700 pay advisors in all of the different departments and the Conservatives thought it was a good idea to take that number and shrink it down to 550 and have pay administration done out of Miramichi,鈥� said Alyward, in reference to a small city in New Brunswick.
Despite the cuts, he said the problem has nothing to do with the employees in Miramichi.
鈥淭his is not a human error issue, it鈥檚 not a human competency issue, it鈥檚 a technology issue.鈥�
Known as Phoenix, the new payroll system, has not only caused issues for Parks Canada employees, but for thousands of other government employees in various departments across the country.
The new payroll system was suppose to replace the government鈥檚 40-year-old pay system.
According to the court application, in many cases Phoenix has completely failed to pay employees, caused delays or inaccurate payments, failed to pay overtime and failed to process information necessary for disability insurance, employment insurance and pension payments.
鈥淏asically what they鈥檝e done is privatized the payroll system,鈥� said Alyward.
鈥淭he pay was being performed by the employees of the government so the Conservatives went out bought this off-the-shelf piece of software called Phoenix then IMB came in and said yes we can adapt this to every single pay anomaly within the federal government payment system. Obviously they were wrong.鈥�
He said the payroll problems have no impact on contract negotiations between the union and the federal government. Parks employees have been working without a contract since Aug. 4, 2014.
Paul Clarke
[email protected]
