CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - After two years of payment errors due to the scandal-plagued Phoenix system, the union representing workers at Veterans Affairs Canada’s office in Charlottetown says the federal government is continuing to slow-walk collective bargaining negotiations.
Employees and union staff of the Union of Veterans Affairs Employees, a union affiliated with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, held a mellow noontime rally in the atrium of the DVA building on Wednesday. As DVA staff munched on pizza, union officials called on the federal government to return to the bargaining table.
Toufic El-Daher, regional vice-president of the Union of Veterans Affairs Employees (UVAE), said the slow pace of bargaining has belied official apologies that have been delivered by federal officials following the Phoenix pay system scandal.
El-Daher said Treasury Board negotiators have not delivered concrete proposals during the most recent round of bargaining talks.
"The Liberals always said they would respect public servants, federal employees. But, in fact, we don't see that in reality. Trudeau has to give the mandate to the Treasury Board to negotiate," El-Daher said.
"We haven't seen that."
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The PSAC’s collective agreements with the Treasury Board expired in June and August. These agreements cover 90,000 federal employees across Canada.
It took close to three years of negotiation before the previous collective agreement was reached in 2016.
Union staff has been arguing that, after the tension caused by the Phoenix system, the federal government should swiftly conclude negotiations for a new agreement.
“Over 200,000 federal public service employees have suffered hardship with Phoenix for over two years now,” said Virginia Vaillancourt, national executive vice-president of the Union of Veterans Affairs Employees.
“Despite missed paycheques, fending off debt collectors and managing endless stress, PSAC members continue to protect our borders, inspect our food, care for our veterans and provide essential public services.”
Introduced during the tenure of former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Phoenix pay system was supposed to save the federal government $70 million. The system has since cost the government over $1 billion. PSAC president Chris Aylward has estimated 82 per cent of the union’s members in the federal public service have experienced pay issues related to the Phoenix system.
Jodi LaPierre, a provincial director for PSAC, says the pay glitches have had a direct impact on Island employees, including one local employee who was unable to purchase a home because of a Phoenix pay error. A credit check conducted in the middle of a real estate transaction found that the individual’s most recent pay cheque was for zero dollars.
"By the time they had to figure that out with the bank, they ended up losing the sale on a potential house," LaPierre said.
LaPierre says both the current Liberal government and that of former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper share the blame for the Phoenix system.
"We have the Conservative government that rolled this out without doing enough research and testing. But, we also have the Liberal government that came in and continued on with the same project," LaPierre said.
"It's criminal. If this was the private sector, there'd be civil lawsuits."
In a statement, the Treasury Board said the federal government is committed to negotiating “timely agreements” in good faith.
The most recent federal budget also allocated $16 million to develop a new pay system that would resolve some of the issues that have plagued the Phoenix system.
“Work on the next generation system will be mindful of risks and informed by advice based on lessons learned from Phoenix and other large-scale enterprise transformation initiatives,” read the Treasury Board statement.
