More worries for an already nervous public service as the Phoenix pay system experienced another hiccup today.
Both the Phoenix and Pension programs were down for several hours after a computer problem.
It is pay day for thousands of federal public servants at midnight tonight. Many of them were wondering today whether they would actually get paid. Public Services and Procurement Canada has assured them the pay will go through, but so, too, is a continuing ripple of worry.
Dozens of federal public workers are taking part in a game of bubble soccer over the lunch hour at Tunney's Pasture in Ottawa. It's a great fundraiser for the public servants looking to help the United Way and other charities.
“I’ve never played anything like this,” says federal government worker Andrea Martin, as she exits a giant bubble, “but it's a really good time for a really good cause.”
It is a great way to de-stress, too, after worries for some folks about their pay. Chris Simard, with Health Canada, had some issues with his paycheque.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that things will be settled in the next month or two,” he says.
That “cautious optimism” may have been kicked off the field after a 4-hour glitch that left thousands of public servants unable to even log on to the Phoenix pay system today.
“At midnight tonight we'll either have (our pay) or no,” one employee said in an email to CTV, “It’s hard to tell people to chill; it's all ok, when I am one of those people unable to chill until I see the money in my account and my mortgage paid.”
“Our members are at the point where they have no confidence in Phoenix whatsoever,” said Chris Aylward, the vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, after an emergency meeting with Public Services and Procurement Canada.
The federal government admitted in June that the foul-ups with the Phoenix pay system had affected some 80-thousand workers. Some were underpaid, some overpaid and some not paid at all. That number now has been “whittled down” to about 65-thousand.
“I’m still waiting for one pay that’s still in backlog,” added Chris Simard.
Today's problems, though, were resolved within four hours.
“Work to back up data was performed over the weekend and caused a storage space issue, which affected the Phoenix and Pension applications,” emailed Anne Trepanier, the Director of Communications for the Office of Judy Foote, the minister responsible for Public Services and Procurement Canada.
“As with the operation of any major IT system, occasional interruptions in service are expected. SSC's monitoring activities identified the problem and allowed for work to begin immediately to rectify the situation.”
Is it affecting the local economy? Federal government employee Maria Sultan-Khan thinks so, “Oh for sure,” she says, “You don’t know when you’re going to get paid next.”
Vegetable farmer Gerry Rochon agrees. He has seen it in sales at his stall in the Byward Market, which have dropped twenty percent. He has heard it from other businesses, too.
“I’ve talked to restaurants, hardware stores,” Rochon says, “they pretty well all agree sales down this year; that people are nervous and don't know what to expect.”
“I’m sure restaurants are being affected, along with sporting events, and local businesses,” adds Aylward, “because of my lack of confidence of whether I'm going to be paid or not.”
The Minister has promised the backlog will be eliminated by the end of October. But Aylward says given the current pace in reducing those current numbers, he is not confident the government will reach its goal by that deadline.
