A whopping four out of every five Correctional Service Canada workers say they face work-related stress because of pay-related issues. One big reason: Phoenix.
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Eighty percent of Correctional Service Canada workers face work-related stress due to issues related to pay and compensation, according to the latest Public Service Employee Survey, with nearly half indicating that their salary or compensation affected by Phoenix in the last 12 months.
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The survey, released every two years, elicited responses from 189,584 federal employees, a response rate of 53 percent.
It asked employees questions on topics ranging from stress and well-being to satisfaction in the hybrid work environment and experiences of discrimination.
Under the stress and well-being section, when asked to what extent pay or other compensation-related issues caused work-related stress, 65 percent of all respondents said they did it is to some extent. Thirty-one percent said “absolutely not.”
However, a whopping four out of five Correctional Service Canada workers say they face work-related stress due to problems related to pay or compensation, the highest rate in 90 departments and agencies across the public service.
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Jeff Wilkins, national president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO), attributed stress related to workers’ wages to the ongoing issues in Phoenix.
“The Phoenix pay system, which has plagued the public service with pay issues since 2016, continues to contribute to the stress our membership faces in each of our workplaces across the country,” Wilkins said. “Our membership performs one of the most dangerous jobs within the primary public administration, and when salaries are lost or certain premiums are not paid, it has a debilitating effect on members who have sacrificed themselves every day in our workplaces.”
Wilkins said UCCO members have bills to pay, just like other Canadians, but they fear issues with the payment system could affect those responsibilities.
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“It remains an issue as well as a scar that hasn’t healed,” Wilkins said.
Other departments with high rates of pay-related stress include Parks Canada (77 per cent), Fisheries and Oceans Canada (75 per cent) and Statistical Survey Operation (74 per cent).
The department least affected is the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, with only 27 percent of employees responding that they face this type of stress.
In the survey, employees were asked if their pay or other compensation had been affected by issues with the Phoenix system in the past 12 months. Overall, 23 percent of respondents said it was.
However, the impact was particularly high on Correctional Service Canada, with 42 per cent indicating that their salary or compensation was affected in Phoenix.
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In both cases, the majority of those who indicated that their salary was affected said that the issue was not resolved and that they were not satisfied with the support they received from their department or agency and from the Pay Center.
Meanwhile, 57 percent of Correctional Service Canada workers indicated that the issues in Phoenix affected their decision to seek or accept another position within the federal public service. That’s compared to 34 percent of all public service respondents.
Michèle LaRose, spokeswoman for Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), said the government is “committed to supporting employees and continues to act on all fronts to resolve public service payment issues.”
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LaRose said that while progress is being made to eliminate outstanding transactions, the growing number of transactions is challenging the government’s efforts.
In 2022, the Pay Center will receive 192,000 more transactions than in 2021, LaRose said, representing an increase of 18 percent. He said that this trend continued until 2023, where the government received 64,000 more transactions compared to the same period last year from January to May 2023.
LaRose said PSPC is working to address the challenges by improving its processes and automating “highly repetitive payroll transactions,” and hiring payroll processors and payment support agents.
Kevin Antonucci, spokesperson for the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), reiterated that the volume of payroll transactions is likely to be the cause of stress related to payroll and workers’ compensation.
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“In terms of the annual number of payment transactions, CSC ranks among the top five departments in the entire public service,” said Antonucci, adding that CSC is a 24/7 operations department with workers following work schedules in different classification groups. “According to our legislative obligations, we manage a higher number of short-term acting situations, and due to the nature of our operations, we also manage a higher number of work leave. and other situations. This contributes to the complexity of our payroll administration.”
Antonucci said the department is working with pay center partners and unions to “manage risks and to support greater pay stability” for employees.
“These partnerships allow us to control and reduce our pay backlog inventory and implement measures to increase the accuracy of our regular in-flight pay transactions,” said Antonucci. “CSC is working to manage these challenges with our partners and will continue to seek opportunities for further growth, stability and solutions to better support our employees.”
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