Federal officials say they are frustrated and have lost faith in the compensation process set up to acknowledge their serious financial and personal difficulties due to the government’s payment system problem.
Some employees say they are still affected by the Phoenix pay system, introduced more than six years ago, which has been overpaid, underpaid and has not paid many federal employees since.
The government then agreed to pay eligible employees $ 2,500 in general damages due to Phoenix, as part of its 2019 and 2020 damages agreements with several unions.
CBC spoke with several current and former public officials, including some who did not want to speak publicly, who expressed frustration with the long wait for compensation and delayed communications from the Complaints Council Secretariat’s complaints team. Treasury of Canada.
“I can’t plan, I can’t assume the government will ever pay me for what I owe,” says Grant Dyck, a now-retired tax account examiner who has experienced salary discrepancies since he held various top-paid performance roles in the Tax Agency of Canada, as well as a disability leave in 2017.
“We are talking about six or six and a half years later, without compensation.”
I can’t assume I’ll ever be charged.- Grant Dyck, retired civil servant
In late 2021, the federal government announced another grievance process in which the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the country’s largest federal civil servants’ union, said it would monitor the government’s “dilly-dilly.” . The union said it could not respond to CBC’s request for comment before it was published.
Employees were eligible to start claiming more compensation if they suffered serious financial and personal hardship, such as losing their home, ruining their credit ratings, or developing trauma or mental health problems due to Phoenix.
Dyck, who retired in 2019 with a disability, says his monthly pension remains unstable due to Phoenix’s miscalculations. He says his best five-year calculations were “ruined” because of the insufficient and excessive random payments he received because of Phoenix.
“To the best of my knowledge, I can’t figure out what I should be paid, what I owe, or what I owe to the government,” said Dyck, who audited payroll as part of his job in government.
“And I did it professionally for five years. So it’s so confusing.”
TARGET | The former ARC payroll auditor says he can’t even figure out the way to Phoenix’s money:
Former CRA auditor says even he “can’t understand” how to get out of Phoenix disaster
Grant Dyck, who used to work for the Tax Agency of Canada as a payroll auditor, says the trail of overpayments and underpayments caused by the Phoenix system is so complicated that not even he can decipher what he and the government are doing. they have.
Although he qualified for the $ 2,500 general damages claim, he said he has not yet seen that money. A letter from the government says that its payment date was February 2, 2022, more than four months ago.
Dyck filed another claim under the category of distress. He suffers from anxiety and depression, and says Phoenix aggravated his illness.
He requested this claim in December and says he is now waiting six months with no end in sight.
“They’re just dragging their cures for it,” Dyck said.
Relive the trauma through the claims process
Another former public official says he expects to “fight aggressively” over his claims for damages, just as he has fought for the money Phoenix has recovered from him over the years.
This employee, who worked at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada before leaving in 2018, describes a one-year depression in 2019 as a result of Phoenix’s problems. He says the government continued to recover the payment owed to it, although it has already returned $ 8,254.25 in overpayments.
The claims process is, I suppose, like the rest [of] the Phoenix fiasco.— Howard Blinn, former civil servant
“Anxiety was built and built and I finally admitted it [the] psychiatric ward, ”said the employee, whom CBC agreed not to name because he feared that public speaking about his mental health would affect his reputation.
“My doctor made me watch the suicide. He insisted that you see me or talk to me weekly. And my family was terrified.”
He applied for compensation for mental illness damages in January. After not knowing “anything” from the secretariat, the former civil servant said he was “fed up” and went to his local deputy to ask for help. Shortly afterwards, he heard from the secretariat to present the relevant documentation.
He says it’s exhausting to relive the trauma through all the doctor’s notes, correspondence, and pay stubs he’s preparing for the claim.
“I predict that after sending this documentation, I will have to go back to my deputy, be aggressive with [the] to process and drive, ”he said.
“If I did not go to mine [MP], my file would not have acted … I have no faith. And from what I’ve been through, I’m going to have to keep up the pressure. “
The Phoenix Pay system cost taxpayers $ 2.4 billion in April 2022. Some who have sought compensation for serious hardship damage say they are frustrated waiting months and years for the process to pass. (Ron Ward / Canadian Press)
Howard Blinn, who used to work with the Canadian Coast Guard in Halifax, says Phoenix’s problems have haunted him since 2016.
He applied for compensation in December and is still waiting.
“The claims process is, I suppose, like the rest [of] the Phoenix fiasco, “he wrote to CBC.” I have no faith in the Liberal [government] to fix it soon “.
Half of the claims have been resolved, TBS says
The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat said in an emailed statement that it does not comment on specific cases.
Spokesman Martin Potvin wrote that depending on the complexity of the claim, it could take up to “several months” to process a claim.
Potvin says nearly 94 percent of general claims for damages have been resolved. Since the launch of the last claims program in late 2021, nearly 800 of the 1,623 serious damages claims, just under half, have been resolved, he added.