Union News December 2018
The Phoenix pay system has been a disaster for our members. Members have been underpaid, overpaid and not paid at all. Not deducting union dues correctly is one more way that Phoenix has failed public sector workers.
For more than two and a half years, the Phoenix payroll system has been incorrectly collecting membership dues from nearly 150,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. Thousands of federal public service workers have been overpaying or underpaying union dues.
Starting November 14, 2018, the government is finally in a position to fix these Phoenix errors, and PSAC members will see the correct dues amount on their paycheques moving forward.
A broken system
PSAC has a long-established system to determine the correct dues for each of its members. This information is updated monthly and sent to the government to be implemented, but due to Phoenix, the government has failed to process this information since March 2016.
This has affected thousands of workers, and particularly those that have undergone significant changes like members who have been promoted, changed positions, gone on parental leave, or retired.
A widespread problem
The Phoenix pay system’s failure to process membership dues correctly means that over 39,000 PSAC members are owed a refund. Current estimates state that nearly $2.6 million in membership dues will be refunded to PSAC members.
Many more workers unfortunately, nearly 111,000, have been underpaying dues and recovery payments began on November 14th. Thankfully, the majority of these workers owe less than $300 and the PSAC has policies in place that ensure the amount will only be recovered in small payments over several pay periods. In addition, as a policy, PSAC does not retroactively collect more than 1 years’ worth of membership dues from their members - even if they owe more than this amount.
PSAC itself is owed nearly $20 million in membership dues needed to fund essential union services such as collective bargaining, legal representation, grievance support and training. PSAC will not penalize members for the government's mistake in launching Phoenix. PSAC does not expect to be able to collect everything they are owed from members. PSAC will pursue all legal avenues to recover money owed to them by the government, that they cannot collect from members.
What does this mean for PSAC members?
The Phoenix pay system is applying membership dues adjustments. Letters to members with details about their specific dues’ situation have been sent out. As of November 14th, some PSAC members started to see the correct membership dues amount on their paycheques, and they found themselves in one of two categories:
You have overpaid your membership dues and are owed a refund.
PSAC will refund the total amount owed to you. You will receive the refund over 1 to 2 paycheques. Beginning in January 2019, your membership dues should be updated and collected at the new 2019 reduced rate.
You have been underpaying membership dues and are in arrears.
PSAC will only recover up to 1 years’ worth of union dues and they will not collect this in one large lump sum. The rate of recovery is always equal to the monthly amount of union dues a member would normally pay. These relatively small recovery payments will take place over several pay periods. For most members who owe less than $300, this shouldn’t take more than 2 to 3 months.
Here is an example to help you better understand how the recovery of dues arrears will be done:
A member should be paying $90 in dues per month but has been only paying the default dues amount of $40 per month. This has been going on for 14 months. The total amount owing is the difference of $50 x 14 months, or $700. The maximum of a year’s worth of union dues at $90 x 12 months is $1,080 in dues. The amount owing in arrears is $700 ($50 x 14 months) and falls lower than the one-year equivalency worth of union dues. If the amount owing was more than $1,080, PSAC would not recover more than the $1,080 from the member.
The member should see the following occur:
- November 14 pay: $45 in dues (half of the correct dues of $90); $90 in arrears ($610 left owing from the initial $700 owing).
- November 28 pay: $45 in dues (other half of correct dues of $90).
- December 12 pay: $45 in dues and $90 in arrears ($520 left owing).
- December 26 pay: $45 in dues.
This process will continue until the balance of dues that are owed has been paid. In months where you have three pays, dues will only be deducted on the second and third pays of the month. Please note that not everyone will have seen the corrected dues on November 14th.
How much should my dues be?
Some members have inquired about the breakdown of dues in anticipation of these changes. Here it is:
- 0.974% of the salary at step 1 - PSAC portion
- $1 per month - PSAC Strike fund
- $20.67 per month - UTE portion
- your local’s portion – Each local sets this amount and it is voted on at local AGM’s.
*** The rates of pay of the current collective agreement are not yet in the system***
If you have any questions, please see a member of your local executive.
Marc Brière
UTE National President