Phoenix deadline arrives with some 22,000 claims still in backlog

Some 22,000 public servants who have been waiting since at least June for their payroll issues to be resolved were still waiting on Monday, the day of the federal government's self-imposed deadline to resolve the issues.

• CBC Ottawa's full Phoenix Falling coverage
• Phoenix payroll problems linger for thousands
• Government behind in clearing payroll backlog

Marie Lemay, the deputy minister in charge of the Phoenix payroll system, told a news conference that government compensation advisers have cleared close to 60,000 of the more than 80,000 cases in a backlog, but that some 25 per cent of the cases are still outstanding.

"Despite our best efforts, we could not completely eliminate the entire backlog," Lemay said. 

"For employees, this is extremely frustrating, and we desperately wanted to reach our target — and I want you to know we will continue to work tirelessly to close the remaining cases as quickly as we can," she said.

"We will get through this. We're disappointed we weren't able to meet the target we had set."

An hour before the briefing, public servants demonstrated outside the Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa, spelling out the phrase "Haunted by Phoenix."

When the federal government introduced the Phoenix payroll system across the country, employees began reporting pay problems.

The government acknowledged in July that there were more than 80,000 public servants who had by June reported some pay problems, with the majority being underpaid, while some have been overpaid or not paid at all.

No new deadline to complete backlog

Lemay said repeatedly through September and early October that the government was on pace to clear the backlog, but during her last briefing on Oct. 19, she acknowledged that the remaining cases were becoming more difficult to resolve and that meeting the deadline was unlikely.

The backlog also doesn't include low priority cases that were not issued before June. The number of those claims has never been revealed.

Lemay declined to provide a new deadline to eliminate the backlog, instead that the focus of her team at Public Services and Procurement Canada was to figure out a plan to get the department to a position where it is handling claims quick enough to comply with the department's standards of service. 

But she acknowledged that she would like to clear the remaining cases before the end of the calendar year so that people would not have issues when it came time to file their taxes.

• CBC Ottawa's full Phoenix Falling coverage