Canada Revenue Agency

For several years, the Phoenix payroll system has been incorrectly collecting membership dues from nearly 150,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. Thousands of federal public service workers have been overpaying or underpaying union dues. Last month, several government departments sent letters informing PSAC members that the government will finally be in a position to fix these Phoenix errors. PSAC members will see the correct dues amount on their November 14th paycheque.

The PSAC/UTE bargaining team met with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) on October 23-25 to continue negotiations for a new collective agreement. While the team raised a number of key issues like job security, scheduling protections, and improving working conditions in call centres, the employer did not move to resolve them.

After lengthy negotiations and an arbitration process, PSAC has won a major victory for the Public Service Dental Care Plan, which will result in substantial improvements for your coverage. “The government dragged this process out by trying to get us to accept reduced coverage for our members,” said Chris Aylward, National President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. “But our position has always been that our members deserve better, and I’m very pleased that the arbitration panel agreed with us.”

The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) is launching a national television ad campaign to highlight the dedication of public service workers throughout the Phoenix pay system disaster, which has now been going on for two and a half years. Despite missed paycheques, fending off debt collectors, and managing endless uncertainty, PSAC members have continued to be here for Canada.

PSAC will be offering webinars for members who volunteered to be Pay Advocates on how to address common problems with Phoenix. Participants will explore the steps to take when handling pay problems that occur due to transfer of positions or overtime. They will also explore the claims process when employees are seeking reimbursements for costs incurred due to Phoenix errors, such as paying interest on loans.

The Auditor General’s second report on Phoenix is a scathing indictment of both the current Liberal and former Conservative governments. It provides further evidence that government was negligent in both the development and implementation of the new pay system.

A Quebec judge has ruled that the grievance process available to unionized employees in the federal public service is well equipped to deal with the fallout of Phoenix pay problems. The judge certified a class action lawsuit against the Government of Canada for two groups of employees that don’t have access to the existing process: casuals and students.

Two surveys conducted by the Canadian government and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), respectively, confirm that federal public service workers have suffered a number of significant hardships that should be remedied through damages.

As many as one in three PSAC members affected by Phoenix have incurred out-of-pocket expenses. When the Phoenix nightmare began, one of the first things PSAC did was secure a claims process for expenses incurred because of inaccurate pay. We encourage our members to claim these expenses.