PSAC’s Phoenix team works towards resolution of member pay issues and works with members to understand persistent pay issues, supports members navigating the Pay Centre and provides support on unresolved pay issues.
This team also participates in all technical and executive-level consultations with the employer on all matters Phoenix pay related.
Any member experiencing pay issues with little to no resolution should reach out to this team via the PSAC national website.
Currently there are 14,700 transfer cases where members moved from one department to another.
There are also 51,500 termination cases where members retired or left the public service.
The majority of cases in the backlog represent all other pay issues such as step increment changes, retro pay, salary adjustments, parental leave, disability management, acting pay, and more.
There are currently approximately 448,000 transactions ready to be processed for Pay Centre client departments and agencies, including:
- 229,000 transactions with financial impact, which include:
- 197,000 beyond Pay Centre’s normal workload, and
- 32,000 repatriated to home departments and agencies for processing and closure
- 80,000 financial transactions that are part of Pay Centre’s normal workload
- 72,000 transactions with no financial impact, or general inquiries
- 6,000 collective agreement transactions
- 61,000 transactions waiting to be closed for which employees have already received payment
The PSAC Phoenix team reports that the caseload for Compensation Advisors is still outpaced by the demand for their services and that staffing levels have not been sufficient to support resolution to the ongoing Phoenix issue. Without more highly trained compensation advisors, the government will continue to fall behind on the backlog year over year.
The overpayment recovery projects for 2016 and 2017 are now complete, and the Pay Centre has launched the 2018 overpayment recovery project. We are anticipating that the majority of these overpayments will be a surprise to PSAC members because most of the errors are administrative and members will have difficulty identifying when they may have been overpaid.
Members dealing with overpayment recovery issues are encouraged to respond to the Pay Centre and demand details of the overpayment, the dates and the amounts. As a reminder to members, any overpayment beyond the six-year limitation period is statute-barred and the employer cannot compel repayment. If a member’s overpayment is beyond the period of the statute of limitations, reach out to the PSAC Phoenix team for suggested messaging to send to the Pay Centre. No recoveries should commence prior to the members chance to respond.
PSAC has been working to re-open the Phoenix Severe Damages settlement beyond the 2020 cut off, as there are still tens of thousands of members who continue to experience pay problems and PSAC members should be compensated.
The PSAC Grievance and Adjudication team continues to update all grievance materials to support component pay grievances, and the team is also preparing to take severe damages claims denied by the employer to adjudication.
Policy grievances have been filed with TBS on recoveries of less than $250 and on overpayments.