Thanks, but no thanks: public servant says pay advances do more harm than good

Somepublic servants affected by the Phoenix payroll fiascosay they are too afraid to take emergency salary advancesofferedbythe federal government because they fear it could do more harm than good.

• PHOENIX FALLING | CBC Ottawa's coverage of the pay issues

Student Ashley Blacksaidthe advanceonly made her financial mess worse.

After two months without pay at her government job, the 21-year-old wasfinally supposed to receive her proper $1,400paycheque on July 27.

But instead, thegovernment clawed back the entire emergency advance she received. Black saidshe was left in the lurch again when she saw another $0.00on herpay stub.

...it's just creating more problems and taking longer for everything to be resolved.- Ashley Black,student and DND employee

"I was really angry at the time.I started having a panic attack." saidBlack.

"My credit card was completely full. I couldn't pay my tuition. I couldn't pay my phonebill. I couldn't pay my parking pass for work. I couldn't pay gas. I was depending on my parents for everything."

Government officials promised yesterday to stop clawing back salary advances all at once and spread out the repayments over multiple paycheques.

But Black says it's too little to late andsome workershave lost trust in the government's temporary solution.

"People are not even applying for emergency salary because it's justcreatingmoreproblems and taking longer for everything to be resolved," said Black about some of her coworkers at the Department of National Defence.

Government makes changes

Ever since the federal government rolled out the new Phoenix pay systemin February, complaints have been mounting from public servants reporting they arebeing underpaid, overpaid, or not paid at all.

• TIMELINE |How the Phoenix pay system rose and fell
• Hundreds more public servants come forward with Phoenix pay problems, government says
• Phoenix public service pay problems could last until October

The number of government workers affected by Phoenixcontinues to climb by the hundreds. Government officials announced 894 new cases in the last two weeks.

It's staffed three newpay centres with 120 compensation advisors to help work through the backlog of 77,000 cases. That's down from 82,000 cases in mid-July.

The deputy minister in charge of the pay system is encouragingworkers struggling financially to apply for emergency salary advances to get by.

There is no reason someone should go through financial hardship- Marie Lemay,Deputy Minister of Public Works and Government Services

"There is no reason someone should go through financialhardship," said MarieLemay yesterday.

"If they have a problem they can get money. There are processes in place for that."

The way the system is set up,thosesalary advances have been automatically deductedoff a worker's nextpaychequewhenthat money was available.Lemaypromised Thursday that problem will not continue.

"As of today we're not going to go and claw it all at [once]," said Lemay. "What we've decided collectively is that we will actually do this now on multiple pay periods."

Lemay said discussions are still ongoing over the details, but ensured that the money would be taken off inmore than threeinstallments.

Pay problems have domino effect

Black said shedoesn't know what to expect in her next paycheque.

Yesterday, thegovernmentpaid her back a big chunk of the money she wasowed. But Black saidshe was taxed heavily and can't afford tuition.

Black is part of thefederal student work experience program (FSWEP) and must be enrolled in classes to keep her job at DND.

She plans to pay only $500 of her more than $6,000 tuition on Aug.25 and go back to school in debt paying interest to Carleton University.She alsostill has to pay back another salary advance.

"It's really stressful," said Black."I know tuition is a different story than rent. But it is stressful because if I can't pay mytuition, Ican't go to school, then Ican't keep my current job."

The government says it will be holding updates every two weeksand is on track to address the backlog of cases by Oct. 31.