CANADA
Canada’s trouble-plagued Phoenix Public Service payroll system could take five years to fix at a cost of C$500 million (A$514 million) a year, the Minister in charge has announced.
The system, which has left countless PS staff overpaid, underpaid, or not paid at all, has already cost the Federal Government more than C$1 billion (A$1.02 billion).
Minister for Public Services, Carla Qualtrough said she expects the actual costs to be lower given some improvements and pilot projects the Government is implementing.
“There are so many moving parts on this I’m hesitant to say, ‘Yes, that’s what it’s going to cost and that’s how long it’s going to take’, because I think we’re going to do it sooner,” Ms Qualtrough said.
Conservative commentator Tony Clement said he had little confidence the Government could fix Phoenix at a cost below the estimates and the lack of a workable repair plan had left taxpayers on the hook for billions and Federal workers turning to their MPs for pay help.
“Unfortunately, that’s the place that we’re in right now — putting Band-Aids on this leaky ship and hopefully that will at least reduce the pain Public Servants are feeling,” Mr Clement said.
He noted the spending estimate did not include a full accounting of compensation for employees’ out-of-pocket expenses, such as late payment penalties, which unions are waiting for the Government to act on.
While Federal workers stayed on the job despite missing pay cheques, they may not continue to do so if future contract negotiations do not contain compensation for the stress of going to work not knowing whether they were going to be paid.
The Government has budgeted C$16 million (A$16.5 million) over two years to find a replacement for Phoenix.
Once the backlog of issues is dealt with and pay information is flowing properly into the system, it then expects to transfer everything to a new pay platform.
Ottawa, 1 July 2018
