The Auditor General’s second report on Phoenix is a scathing indictment of both the current Liberal and former Conservative governments. It provides further evidence that government was negligent in both the development and implementation of the new pay system.
“By not listening to the people doing the work, or the unions that represent them, the government created a recipe for disaster,” said PSAC National President Chris Aylward. “And hard working federal public service workers are the ones who paid the price.”
The report confirms that the government failed to adequately test the new system while they also ignored warnings from their own employees and the unions that represent them.
The Auditor General called this “an incomprehensible failure” and that recommendations beyond the scope of this report are needed to prevent this from happening again. It is clear a public inquiry is needed.
“Federal public service workers are the ones dealing with the consequences of their government’s negligence and they deserve to be paid damages for the hardships they have endured,” said Aylward.
“We also need to build on what we found out today through a national public inquiry so that we can ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.”
PSAC will formally submit a request for a federal pubic inquiry upon completing a full analysis of the Auditor General’s report.