The federal government does not know when it will be able to eliminate all of the 408,000 transactions awaiting processing in the Phoenix pay system.
The government wants to eliminate 112,000 by the end of the financial year. This includes processing the 19,000 pending transactions deemed to be the most problematic and impactful for public servants.
Shared Services Canada employees will be the first whose files will be transferred to the new Dayforce payroll system. The government therefore wants to eliminate the 12,000 transactions pending for employees of this department by the end of the financial year.
Artificial intelligence in support
To help resolve payroll issues and improve our operations, we have launched various HR and payroll initiatives. One of them concerns a virtual assistant based on artificial intelligence which is intended to support compensation advisors and significantly reduce processing times, we can read in a press release from Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC ).
The government emphasizes that the first tests with artificial intelligence are conclusive and that it wishes to clean a growing number of erroneous data with this technology.
We did almost 20,000 cases in one evening. So that’s something that a human won’t necessarily be able to do. There, we need to ensure whether the calculation that was made is the correct calculation, confides the Associate Deputy Minister of PSPC, Alex Benay.
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Alex Benay, Associate Deputy Minister of Public Services and Procurement (File photo)
Photo : The Canadian Press / Justin Tang
However, he specifies that it is up to civil servants to manage payments so as not to let artificial intelligence do all the work. There will be humans who will be part of the decision-making process. There will be de facto tools. So, it’s a bit of a transition that we’re making, but we’re trying to do it gradually, adds Mr. Benay.
PSPC maintains that it has begun studying possible solutions for a new modern case management and customer relations tool that will allow more efficient management of pay transactions.
Eliminate pending transactions before Dayforce
The federal government wants to eliminate all transactions pending for more than a year before transferring the files of all federal civil servants to the new Dayforce pay system. This represents approximately 200,000 transactions.
To avoid past mistakes and ensure a harmonious transition between the two pay systems, the government anticipates that they will have to coexist for a period of approximately five years.
We are not going to transfer an erroneous file or data into the new system. I think we’ve seen the impact it’s had historically when we do it. […] We are working on policies and systematic approaches across all ministries to ensure that this does not happen again, underlines Alex Benay.
The official launch of Dayforce is not expected until 2026.
Since 2016, the federal government has spent several billion dollars on the Phoenix pay system.
A government obligation
In response to this update, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) reiterated that paying public servants correctly is not a choice, but rather an obligation of the government and its main responsibility.
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Sharon DeSousa is the National President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). (Archive photo)
Photo: Account X/PSAC
New tools to help compensation advisors deal with pay issues are a good start, but after eight years, it’s too little, too late. Public servants and unions expect real progress to be made in resolving the Phoenix pay issues and the enormous backlog of more than 407,000 pay issues, says PSAC National President Sharon DeSousa in a written statement.
For her, we must hire and train compensation advisors and then deal with the new Phoenix problems that are created every day and eliminate the enormous backlog of pay problems.
With information from Estelle Côté-Sroka
