Archived: Important message to Government of Canada employees regarding public service pay issues: December 1, 2016
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December 2, 2016
On Tuesday November 29, the Minister of Public Services and Procurement provided the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates with an update on our progress in resolving public service pay issues. I invite you to read her remarks.
Backlog
We continue to resolve the remaining cases in the backlog, which are extremely complex and require a number of time-consuming manual calculations. A dedicated group of expert compensation advisors are working as quickly as possible to resolve the 15,000 employee cases that remain in the backlog and have some form of outstanding pay transaction. To date, we have closed pay transactions for over 83% of the employees in our backlog.
Our Plan
As we continue to eliminate the backlog, the rest of our compensation advisors are focused on reaching a steady state, where pay transactions are processed efficiently, consistently and with minimal errors.
Our plan to reach steady state has three components:
- A concentrated, expert team to eliminate the backlog.
- A prioritized approach with very close monitoring for the timely processing of cases already in, or entering into, the pay system
- A process for validation and improvement.
We are currently reviewing the plan with departments, employees and unions. This focus on validation will ensure we have a robust and reliable go-forward approach.
Tax Implications
As the year-end approaches, we are aware that employees who were not paid correctly may be worried about tax implications. We are working to minimize the potential for problems and to ensure that employees have the information they need.
Employees can visit the Canada Revenue Agency website or contact their call centre for general tax enquiries. Employees looking for information on their T4 slips will be able to contact the Phoenix call centre.
Fraudulent telephone calls
Recently, Public Services and Procurement Canada was informed that employees have been receiving calls from an alleged recovery agency about reimbursing overpayments. These individuals claim to be working with the Phoenix team and are looking to recover overpayments made to employees.
The Government of Canada is not using collection agencies to collect payments related to Phoenix. If you have an overpayment you wish to repay, you may contact the Phoenix call centre to make arrangements.
If you receive a call from an agency claiming that you need to repay an overpayment, do not provide personal information such as your address, credit card or bank account number and do not make payment arrangements with this agency. If the fraudulent agency contacts you, please report it to your local police and to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and discuss it with your departmental security officer, who will guide and advise you on how to protect your personal information.
Conclusion
Thank you for your continued patience and understanding. We are all working as hard as we can to fix issues and process all employee pay transactions as quickly as possible.
Marie Lemay, P.Eng., ing.
Deputy Minister
Public Services and Procurement Canada