The Phoenix pay system marked its tenth anniversary on Monday, a moment labour leaders say should remind the government of the risks associated with deep cuts to public services. First launched in 2016, the Phoenix pay system promised to modernize payroll for federal public servants. Instead, the system was plagued with errors, affecting millions of workers and costing taxpayers billions.
“Phoenix’s launch ten years ago was a disaster for federal public service workers and for taxpayers,” said Sharon DeSousa, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the largest union of federal public servants. “Workers didn’t create this mess, but they are the ones who suffered the most, had to clean up the government’s mess, and are still dealing with the repercussions over a decade later.”
In its tenth year, the Phoenix pay system still boasts 233,000 unresolved pay cases according to PSAC. A report done by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), showed that more than 115,000 new transactions are received by the system and about 75 per cent need to be processed manually. The errors within Phoenix have cost taxpayers about $5 billion. At the same time, the government has spent about $350 million to develop its replacement.
“My daughter was born in the same year the Phoenix pay system was launched. She turns 10 in April. The pay issues my family faced were particularly difficult, and we are just one story among many thousands, tens of thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands,” said PIPSC president Sean O’Reilly said at a press conference. “At its peak, more than half of federal public servants experienced at least one pay error under Phoenix. More than 10 years later, this is not a closed chapter. It is an ongoing failure.”
PIPSC highlighted that the hardship caused by Phoenix pay failures could have been avoided if the concerns of workers had been heeded. Before the system’s launch, about 1,200 experienced pay advisor positions were eliminated. PIPSC said this left the government without the internal capacity to address issues when the pay system saw problems.
“Let me be clear, we support modernization. Public systems should evolve. Technology should improve service, but modernization without capacity is not progress, it is risk,” O’Reilly told reporters on Monday. “You cannot cut experienced professionals and assume software will compensate. It takes experts to run a country.”
Both PSAC and PIPSC noted that amid the current cuts to the federal public service, resources needed to process payroll will be spread even thinner as experienced workers leave or lose their jobs. As well, O’Reilly noted that workforce adjustments will create a surge in early retirement, layoff and transfer pay changes that will need to be processed. He said these are precisely the kind of cases Phoenix is known to process poorly.
While public servants are the ones affected by Phoenix, O’Reilly said all Canadian workers should be aware of the lessons learned from the Phoenix pay disaster. He said these kinds of digital ambitions are being taken on in other projects, like pension benefit systems, which affect millions of Canadians.
“If similar failures occur in systems that deliver pensions, employment insurance or disability benefits, the consequences will not be contained,” He said. “This will affect seniors, families waiting on EI, people who cannot afford uncertainty hanging over them for 10 years.”
To Larry Rousseau, executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress and a public service worker, the errors made while implementing the Phoenix pay system demonstrate the need to consult unions when major changes occur.
Rousseau said in an interview with rabble.ca that the message from public service unions prior to Phoenix’s launch was clear, but ignored. Now, the government has a chance to heed union warnings when it comes to public service cuts. If the same mistakes are repeated, the impacts will not be contained within the public service.
