A handful of public service executives responsible for overseeing the beleaguered Phoenix payroll system earned “performance pay” over the past year even as thousands of public servants struggled to receive regular paycheques.
According to media reports, approximately $4.8 million in "performance pay" was divvied up between 340 executives at Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), a portion of who worked with the pay system.
The average payment was $14,199.74, according to documents recently tabled in the House of Commons.
Deputy Minister Marie Lemay told journalists during a technical briefing in Ottawa on April 5, that the performance pay was only given to lower level executives and fewer than 10 executives would have been involved with the payroll system. According to the department, the performance pay for some senior executives directly involved with Phoenix is on hold until an evaluation of the project is completed.
“Executives who received performance pay are executives who are at a lower level, and these are people who are not necessarily 100 per cent dedicated to the project,” Leman said in French.
“Be assured that we looked at each pay evaluation … people got what they deserved for the year.”
Robyn Benson, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said she was appalled by the news.
“Words don’t even describe how shocked we are. The government is basically saying to our members that it doesn’t matter if they get paid or not, they are not important,” Benson wrote in a press release. “If you are a manager and you’re not doing your job, you should not get paid bonuses.”
She said any payments like this should be put on hold until the system is fixed.
There are still 284,000 outstanding cases that have not been resolved, with some employees having more than one case thats being dealt with at a time.
“We are making ongoing progress, steadily improving and moving toward a more reliable pay system, but we’re also very, very aware that we still have a lot of work ahead of us. And we are determined to address all the pay issues and get to a steady state as soon as possible,” Lemay said.
News that executives received performance pay hit a nerve with several opposition MPs during question period in the House of Commons on April 6.
“For months the federal pay service has been mired in a total mess, some people have been paid double, some not at all, they’ve had to borrow to pay the bills. Those responsible for this mess should be punished, but no, what are the Liberals doing? They’re giving them bonuses,” said Bernard Bigras, a member of parliament for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, in Quebec.
In response, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement Steven MacKinnon reminded the house that the Liberals inherited the Phoenix payroll system from the previous government.
“I can assure my honourable colleague that Canadians are welcoming the fact that we are going to fix this pay system we inherited from the Conservatives and that we are going to honour our public service with respect and we are going to pay them on time with a pay system they demand,” said MacKinnon.
Following question period NDP national parks critic Wayne Stetski added his voice to the condemnation.
“The Phoenix pay system is a mess and I certainly don’t think until that mess is straightened out anybody should be getting a bonus,” Stetski said during a telephone interview.
“I think performance pay has a reason for it and that’s performance … there are thousands and thousands of public servants across Canada that are not being paid properly so to reward the managers or the executives of implementing that program when everyday workers are not getting paid properly is not right.”
With files from The Canadian Press
