2 days ago
Federal government moving ahead with new pay system to replace Phoenix
A federal government building in downtown Ottawa is seen in this Sept. 11, 2024 image. (Dave Charbonneau/CTV News Ottawa)
The days of the troubled Phoenix pay system appear to be numbered, as the federal government moves forward with implementing the new Dayforce system for human resources and payroll tasks.
Public Works and Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound announced Wednesday that the government is moving forward to the 'final build and testing phase' of the Dayforce HR and pay solution for government employees.
'The Government of Canada remains committed to modernizing its HR and pay systems in a responsible and transparent manner,' Lightbound said in a statement. 'By investing in the future of HR and pay, we are taking an important step forward in ensuring an efficient, secure, and sustainable solution for public service employees.'
The government says Dayforce will replace a 'significant number of HR systems' used across all departments. Over the next two years, the deployment of Dayforce will 'will begin to progressively onboard,' starting with two departments and a separate agency, according to Public Works and Procurement Canada.
According to the government's media release, Dayforce is a 'global human capital management technology company,' and is a single AI-powered platform for HR, pay, time, talent and analytics.
The Phoenix pay system was launched by the federal government in 2016. Since then, thousands of civil servants have been paid incorrectly by the pay system.
At least $3.5 billion has been spent by the government on the Phoenix pay system since 2017.
There were 327,000 transactions waiting to be processed through the Phoenix pay system, including 331,000 financial transactions and 9,000 transactions related to collective bargaining agreements. The government's website shows 49 per cent of the outstanding transactions are over a year old.
In 2018, the government announced plans to replace the Phoenix pay system. More than $150 million has been spent looking into a new platform to replace the pay system.
In 2019 and 2020, the Government of Canada and a number of public service unions finalized an agreement to compensate unionized employees who were paid through the Phoenix pay system. In April, a class-action settlement to provide compensation to non-unionized and casual federal public servants for errors with the Phoenix system was approved by the Superior Court of Quebec.
With files from The Canadian Press and CTV News Ottawa's William Eltherington and Ted Raymond
