Phoenix payroll woes 'demoralizing,' says federal employee after 10 weeks without pay

After 10 weeks without a paycheque, aCape Breton woman saysshe's draining her savingsand is demoralized as Christmas approaches andthe federal government continues to strugglewith its payroll system.

Since the Phoenix payroll system was rolled out in February, more than 80,000 public servants have been underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all. The government had pledged to fix the problemby the end of October, but has missed its self-imposed deadline.

• Who should shoulder the blame for Phoenix fiasco?

"My husband and I have maxed our credit cards, essentially, we've taken out any savings that we had," said the federal government employee, who asked not to beidentified forfear she will be disciplined byher employer.

She said she's not been paid since Sept. 22.

"We weren't prepared to go for several months without my income and I'm the main earner in my household. It's been extremely stressful."

'We're living on credit'

She said sheand others are now at the mercy of the speed with which the large backload of pay issues are solved.

"We've basically depleted our savings and now we're living on credit, which is not an ideal way to be functioning."

The bureaucrat who had been in charge of Phoenix,Rosanna Di Paola, said in September the systemisn't to blame for the backlog, but ratherincorrectlyentered information and processing timesslower than expected.

• Bureaucrat in charge of Phoenix pay system shuffled into new role

On Friday, the deputy minister of Public Services and Procurement, Marie Lamey, released a statement that said 15,000 employee cases remained in backlog andhave some form of outstanding pay transaction.

"To date, we have closed pay transactions for over 83 per centof the employees in our backlog," she said.

'It's pretty demoralizing'

Theemployee in Cape Breton is not one of them.She's still waiting,and continues to go to a job every day without being paid.

"It's pretty demoralizing, I don't know too many people that keep going to work without receiving any remuneration,"she said. "We're of courseexpected to go to work, even though we're not actually getting a paycheque."

She said it's tough to just cover the financial basics, such as mortgage, daycare and food. And now with Christmas on the horizon, there's extra pressure.

"That's been causing anxiety in our household because obviously we want to have a nice Christmas holiday," she said. "I normally support local charities and local businesses, but that's not at all possible this year. We're just trying to get by and make sure that the people in our lives have a couple of things to open under the tree."

'Completely unacceptable'

No one from Public Services Canada was available for comment Monday.

A media spokesperson sent a statement that said: "The ongoing public service pay problems are completely unacceptable and we continue to work tirelessly to help each and every employee experiencing a problem with his or her pay."

• Ottawa seeks dismissal of Phoenix legal action forcing it to pay workers on time

But the Cape Breton federal employee said her frustration is exacerbated by alack of answers for when she can expect to see her pay return to normal.She said she's been told that she might resume later in December, but there'snothing definite.

And also there are no projections on when she'd see the pay she's owed for the last 10 weeks.

"It's very frustrating. I can't get any information whatsoever on when I'll be receiving that."