Phoenix vexes 2 out of 3 public servants, survey shows

More than two-thirds of public servants surveyed recently said they've been personally affected by the Phoenix pay system, and aren't satisfied with the support they're getting to correct their problems.

On Thursday, ministers in charge of public servants took questions and shared information about the results of the 2017 Public Service Employee Survey.

According to the survey, 69 per cent of workers who responded said their pay has been affected by the pay system.

For more than two years, tens of thousands of federal workers have been improperly paid, causing incalculable stress and hardship for many individuals and families.

"The survey underscores that pay issues have caused public servants stress to a large or very large extent," said Carla Qualtrough, minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada, the department in charge of Phoenix.

"We know that public servants have spent many hours trying to resolve their pay issues, and generally they're not satisfied with the support they're receiving."

Phoenix results from the survey

Employees reported the following issues as a result of the Phoenix pay system:

• 34 per cent were underpaid regular pay.
• 22 per cent were missing regular pay.
• 18 per cent were overpaid regular pay.
• 47 per cent were affected by missing or incorrect overtime or other extra duty pay.
• 6 per cent were affected by missing or incorrect disability, maternity or parental leave pay.

"I want to acknowledge that the results confirm the challenges that many public servants are facing and the unacceptable, emotional and financial hardship the pay system has had and continues to have on you and your families," said Scott Brison, president of the Treasury Board of Canada.

Qualtrough said the government has taken many measures to reduce wait times for missing pay and more than doubled the number of pay advisers since Phoenix was launched in February 2016.

Some satisfied with support

The minister says the pay centre has now processed more transactions than it's receiving.

"This means that the backlog at the Miramichi pay centre did not grow for the first time since last July," said Qualtrough.

Only 16 per cent of those affected by Phoenix responded that they were satisfied with the support they received from the pay centre to help resolve their issues.

Overall, 77 per cent of employees reported satisfaction with their work inside the federal government. That number is up from the last survey in 2014.

This will be the last of the three-year surveys as the government moves to a "more or less" annual survey of employees, according to Brison.

Holding IBM to account

IBM was the contractor in charge of developing Phoenix for close to $185 million and it's tasked with helping fix the mess. The company also does other contract work for the federal government.

On Thursday, reporters asked the minister whether the government will continue to do such a significant amount of business with IBM in the future.

Qualtrough said the government is "very strictly holding IBM to account on this and all the contracts that we have with them" and it will ensure that all the arrangements with IBM are being met.