PSAC rallies in downtown Winnipeg to protest Phoenix pay system 'nightmare'

Dozens of members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada rallied in downtown Winnipeg on Wednesday, protesting the problem-plagued Phoenix pay system.

"Hundreds of thousands of federal public service workers have suffered the terrible consequences of the Phoenix debacle, but after two long years the government still doesn't have a plan to end this nightmare," said Marianne Hladun, executive vice-president for the union's Prairie region.

After coming online in early 2016, Phoenix has been mired in problems, with employees being underpaid, overpaid or not at all.

"This is not just an employee problem. This affects their families, this affects the community, and we're not seeing any end in sight," Hladun said.

"They [government] have a responsibility  to the workers and their families, so we're calling on the government to get compensation advisers back in workplaces, back in the pay centre, and they need to do an audit of every single employee's records to make sure they get what they're owed."

PSAC members set up in front of the federal government building at the corner of Broadway and Smith Street from 7 a.m. until 9 a.m., distributing "Phoenix First Aid" materials to members who have "been burnt by Phoenix."

It was one of a handful of protests around the country, including in Montreal where PSAC blocked access to a federal building to express their continued frustration with Phoenix.

"Thousands of our members, and others in the federal public service, have been burnt by Phoenix," Hladun said.

More than 60 per cent of federal public service workers in Manitoba are affected by the failed pay system, she said.

"That's a minimum," she said. "We're talking thousands — we're talking employees who continue to come to work, continue to process your EI, continue to provide services to veterans, continue to do the work that Canadians expect us to do, all the while not knowing if they're going to get paid tomorrow."

The 2018-19 budget calls for an additional $431 million to address problems created by Phoenix, totalling almost $900 million in taxpayer money that has been poured into a system the government is looking at scrapping altogether.

Whether the government scraps Phoenix or fixes it, PSAC said in a news release it is demanding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pay damages to employees "for the many hardships Phoenix has caused these workers, including untold stress, and the time spent dealing with their pay problems."

"We appreciate the fact that they identified it in the budget but there's more work to be done and it needs to be done now," Hladun said.

Patty Hajdu, the federal minister of employment, workforce and labour, called the pay system and the related stresses it has caused employees "heartbreaking," noting tens of thousands of people are affected, including many in her own department.

 "As we've poured more money and resources into the problem, in fact we haven't been able to make much of a dent in it. So we'll be looking for other solutions," she said. "At the end of the day people need to get paid."

The government is hiring pay experts to work in each government department to process emergency payments and work with specific families, says Hajdu, who was in Winnipeg on Wednesday as part of a federal budget tour.

However, part of challenge is finding pay experts after 700 were laid off by the previous Harper government, she says.

"I think we'll be moving forward to address this problem in a more substantial and a more long-term way," Hajdu said, "because we cannot continue the way we're doing."