Feds to forgo $140 million in booked savings as they try to fix pay problems
OTTAWA — Federal civil servants will be reimbursed for hiring tax accountants to sort through their pay problems and departments will be allowed to re-hire laid-off payroll employees, the federal government said Thursday as it tried to bail out its sinking Phoenix pay system.
A high-powered cabinet committee is also being created to fix the pay process, although a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office didn’t provide a deadline for achieving that goal.
In announcing the measures, the government acknowledged it will have to forgo $140 million dollars it expected to save over the next two years from implementing the new electronic payroll system — and that it could take that long to finally resolve all of the pay issues.
A cabinet working group, led by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, will work to bring Phoenix to a so-called “steady state,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement.