By Tyler Marr

Mayor to pressure feds over fractured Phoenix payroll system

Sep 19, 2017 | 4:07 PM

Mayor Greg Dionne will make moves to pressure federal ministers to find solutions to repair the backlogged Phoenix payroll system.

At Monday’s city council meeting, councillors unanimously approved a motion supporting the mayor to send a letter to the feds outlining the “negative economic impact” the system is taking on local residents and the economy.

“They have been struggling for two years to get the pay tool system sorted out,” Dionne said. “Some members of their payroll are owed over 15 thousand dollars.”

The federal government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to resolve the IT boondoggle, which has left tens of thousands of public servants underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all.

In 2009, the former Conservative government had created a plan to overhaul the 40-year-old system. Part of the plan involved moving all payroll-related work to the Maritimes. But come June 2015, the new location was flooded with complaints from people not getting paid. In February 2016, the government laid off nearly 2,700 clerks then rolled the Phoenix system across its 34 government departments. Ever since, the program has snowballed out of control into what many have branded as unacceptable.

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The situation was most prevalent in Prince Albert this time last year when members of the Union of Solicitor General Employees (USGE) at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary protested the pay problems. At the time, local union representatives said more than 60 members living in P.A. were impacted by the payroll issues.

Though not one to get involved in other levels of government, Dionne said the long-term issues are starting to have an impact on local economic activity.

“The federal government has allowed this to go on for two years. If this was a private company doing this, the Saskatchewan and federal labour departments would be all over them,” Dionne said. “I don’t believe the federal government should be exempt from these rules.”

He told the story of some federal employees who won’t take a supervisor position and a pay increase because they say; “anything you do that makes the pay system change, you hope you get your cheque.”

“That is kind of scary,” the mayor said. “This problem which has burdened our employees for the past two years and in some cases has stopped their spending, which is slowing down our economic growth in the community.”

Coun. Dennis Nowoselsky voiced his support of the move, saying anything that has a human impact on citizens in the community is much more than just an economic disturbance.

“People don’t get their pay cheques, they don’t pay their bills and that is human suffering,” he added. 

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr