Phoenix pay problems spike again amid retroactive labour deals, summer hiring
OTTAWA — The federal government’s bug-addled public service pay system saw a fresh spike in problems last month, the result of new labour contracts and summer hiring, officials said Friday.
Public Services and Procurement Canada managed to stabilize the backlog of pay change files that were being dealt with in March and April, deputy minister Marie Lemay told a teleconference.
But the backlog surged by about 10 per cent last month when the Phoenix system was inundated with new pay requests, she said.
The system was jammed by pay changes made to accommodate new collective agreements coming into force for roughly 24,000 government employees working as financial managers, auditors, scientists and patent examiners, among others.