‘Promising’ decline in Phoenix pay backlog comes as unions negotiate damages
OTTAWA — The federal government offered a temporary glimmer of hope Friday to employees suffering through serious pay issues as it moved ahead in talks with civil service unions toward a settlement for the “undue stress and hardships” caused by its troubled Phoenix pay system.
Figures released by Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), which oversees the beleaguered system, suggest a long-awaited reprieve from the ever-growing backlog of problems created since Phoenix was brought online just over two years ago.
There were about 626,000 transactions awaiting processing at the government’s pay centre in Miramichi, N.B., as of Feb. 21, the department said on its web-based pay dashboard.
But while that’s fewer than the peak of 633,000 problem pay files reached in January, the decline may be short-lived, PSPC warned.