Question Period Note: Update on Phoenix stabilization planning, investments and employee support

This note focuses on the efforts and progress to stabilize the Pay System, support employees, as well as financial investments in Phoenix.

Notes:

• All questions related to the Next Generation Human Resources and Pay solution should be directed to the Minister of Digital Government, responsible for Shared Services Canada
• All questions related to the mental health for public servants should be directed to the President of the Treasury Board
• All questions related to the negotiation of collective agreements and compensation for Phoenix damages agreements should be directed to the President of the Treasury Board

• Supporting employees facing pay issues and making sure they are paid accurately and on time is a top priority
  • As part of our ongoing efforts we have increased our compensation workforce four-fold since 2016, to more than 2,300 employees
  • We have ensured public servants facing pay problems have access to emergency payments
  • We have also focused efforts on priority files such as parental leave, disability leave, student pay and collective agreements implementation
  • We have introduced MyGCPay to all departments and agencies. MyGCPay is a new web application that provides employees with a centralized and simplified view of their pay and benefits
  • We continue to build strong partnerships between departments, unions and all stakeholders so that pay transactions can be processed quickly and accurately

If pressed on specific measures for COVID-19:

• Pay services are essential, and we have the resources in place to make sure they are operating without interruption

• The Client Contact Centre (CCC) remains available to assist any current or former public servant experiencing pay issues

• We recognize that the recovery of overpayments can be a source of stress for employees, even more so now given the current circumstances
• Employees who have agreed on a repayment plan but now need to revisit it can contact the CCC to discuss available options
• We have introduced interim administrative measures to simplify and speed up the approval process of a range of pay-related transactions

If pressed on support to employees:

• We have launched MyGCPay, a new web application that provides employees with a centralized and simplified view of their pay and benefits. Created by employees for employees, it helps them identify pay issues earlier and allows them to monitor their open cases with more detail
• We have improved services offered by the CCC to provide better support to employees, including the ability to resolve pay issues in a faster and more effective way at the first point of contact
• The CCC escalates cases of hardship so they can be addressed quickly, and agents are trained to respond to situations where employees may be in distress
• Across Government, progress has been made to increase mental health awareness. Work continues to better equip managers, practitioners and leaders on how to address pay-related mental health issues in the workplace and to inform employees of the services and support tools that are available, including flexible repayment options

COVID-19 measures

Services related to pay are considered essential and measures are in place to ensure that operational requirements are met. Following the recommendation of the Public Health Agency of Canada, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) asked all its employees, including those at the Public Service Pay Centre and the CCC, to work from home if possible, while ensuring the delivery of essential services.

The Pay Centre continues to deliver all of its pay services which include regular pay, new hires, return from leave, maternity and parental leave, as well as disability insurance.

Supporting employees and eliminating the backlog remain our top priorities and we continue to see progress.

Since its peak in January 2018, the overall queue of transactions ready to be processed at the Pay Centre has decreased by 57% (from 633,000 to 272,000), as of November 25, 2020.

Over the same period of time, the backlog of transactions with financial implications has decreased by 73%, representing a reduction of 281,000 transactions, from 384,000 to 103,000.

The CCC remains the first point of contact for current and former federal public servants looking for information or help with compensation and benefits, and for technical issues when using the Compensation Web Applications or MyGCPay. Clients may, however, experience increased wait times when calling the CCC.

We are working closely with all our partners, including employees, unions, Members of Parliament offices, departments and their representatives from HR and pay, to provide support during this challenging time.

Total investments to deliver pay and respond to pay issues is $1.381 billion:

• $50 million (2016) PSPC – build capacity, enhance technology, employee support
• $142 million (2017) – build capacity, enhance technology, employee support. This included $15 million for Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) and $127 million for PSPC
• $431.4 million (Budget 2018) PSPC/TBS - build capacity, enhanced technology, and employee support
• $5.5 million (Budget 2018) Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) – process income tax reassessments needed due to pay issues
• $16 million (Budget 2018) TBS – work with experts, federal public sector unions and technology providers on a way forward for a new pay system
• $523.3 million (Budget 2019) PSPC – ensure adequate resources to address pay issues; support system improvements
• $9.2 million (Budget 2019) CRA – process income tax reassessments needed due to pay issues
• $203.5 million (Supplementary estimates (A) 2020 to 2021) – continue efforts to eliminate the backlog of pay issues for public servants, maintain measures to deliver pay and support employees, and stabilize pay for the Government of Canada

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Since the launch of Phoenix, PSPC implemented a series of measures focused on stabilizing the pay system.

These include increasing the compensation workforce, providing employees with greater support through our CCC, introducing the Pay Pods model, implementing a backlog reduction strategy through our Strategic Engagement Sector, and implementing technical fixes that have improved payroll processing, such as increased automation of transactions.

As a result, since its peak in January 2018, the Pay Centre's backlog of transactions with financial implications has been reduced by 73% (from 384,000 to 103,000) as of November 25, 2020.

PSPC has also met service standards 72% of the time on average so far this year (as of November 2020), compared to a 57% average over 2018 to 2019.

On average, in 2020 to date, parental and disability leaves have been processed within service standards 99% of the time (as of October 2020).

In addition to efforts underway, we are working closely with all stakeholders, including experts, federal public sector unions and the private sector for innovative solutions to accelerate pay stabilization.

We continue to regularly share information on progress with employees and Canadians through various platforms and tools.

MyGCPay

MyGCPay is a web application developed by PSPC to help rebuild federal government employees’ confidence in the integrity of their pay. It provides employees with a centralized and simplified view of their pay and benefits. It helps employees identify pay issues earlier and allows them to monitor their open cases with more detail.

The application allows employees to:

• View the most current information about their pay and benefits
• Print important documents such as, tax slips and proof of employment
• Identify pay issues earlier and, if an employee’s current or former department was served by the Pay Centre, monitor any open enquiries and cases in detail
• Access historical information, pay cheques, benefits plans, enquiries, and Pay Centre cases dating back to 2016

Following consultations with Government of Canada employees, the MyGCPay project team has developed a new and improved pay stub.

The team has temporarily removed the new pay stub feature from MyGCPay, while they address technical issues. All other MyGCPay features remain available, and employees can continue to access their pay stubs through the Phoenix pay system and the Compensation Web Application (CWA).

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