- UNASSIGNED UTE MEMBERS
We have received a list from the CRA containing 1917 unassigned members to a Local. The CRA was able to give us the work location for each of them. We have transferred this list to the PSAC Membership Administration Section to make the necessary updates.
I met with one of the managers of the PSAC Membership Administration Section regarding the recovery of the outstanding money owed for our Locals. He informed me that for the period from March 2016 to October 2018, the PSAC will not ask its members to pay back the portion of union dues related to their Local for that period during which they were unassigned due to problems with the Phoenix payroll system (change file). If a Local is able to determine (with supporting evidence) how much money it would have lost as a result of this situation, they can send us a claim and we will forward it to the PSAC. Indeed, the PSAC intends to add such claims to its class action lawsuit against the federal government in order to recover money as a result of the problems experienced by the PSAC and its members and the additional costs involved.
It should be noted that it is and has always been the responsibility of Locals to identify their unassigned members and to inform the National Office as soon as possible so that its members can be assigned to their Local and thus pay their union dues at the local level.
- PAYMENT OF THE BILINGUALISM BONUS
As communicated by email by the employer on July 8, many of the problems with the Phoenix system regarding the bilingualism bonus have been resolved and CRA have determined an approach for paying amounts due to employees.
Below is the strategic approach that the CRA's Compensation Division has developed to reconcile outstanding bilingualism bonus amounts.
Employees who are underpaid:
- Payments owed from April 7, 2016 (Phoenix implementation date) to March 31, 2019, have been paid to employees on July 24, 2019.
- Until all systemic issues are resolved in Phoenix, the Compensation Division will continue to automatically reconcile affected accounts on a quarterly basis, starting in October 2019, to ensure that the employees continue to receive what they are entitled to.
Examples of quarterly payments:
For the period of April 1 to June 30, 2019 Payment will be in October 2019
For the period of July 1 to September 30, 2019 Payment will be in December 2019
For the period of October 1 to December 31, 2019 Payment will be in March 2020
Employees who are overpaid:
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is working with Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) to define a framework that will ensure a standard Government of Canada approach to do review of employee pay. The review will look holistically at an employee’s account for discrepancies related to salary entitlements, overpayments and underpayments since the implementation of Phoenix. For this reason, the recovery of any overpayment of the bilingualism bonus will not be done until a standard Government of Canada approach to Phoenix pay file reconciliation has been determined.
- BASIC ACCOUNTING TRAINING COURSE
Our Finance Administration Officer, Liam Merrigan, completed the basic accounting training course. The course will now be tested by the Rocky Mountains and Prairie regions immediately following the September Presidents' Conference. Thereafter, we may make changes if deemed necessary before making it an officially approved UTE course.
Respectfully submitted,
Marc Brière
National President