Unpaid hours, ignored salary increases, incomprehensible statements, overpayments: Quebec civil servants are having major problems with their pay and blame Éric Caire’s ministry for this fiasco, which looks like a Quebec Phoenix.
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“It’s a mess,” sums up Martin Perreault, president of the wildlife protection officers’ union.
Another tile falls on the Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital (MCN), which has already looked very bad in recent weeks with the catastrophic deployment of the new SAAQclic online platform.
Our Bureau of Investigation has spoken over the past few weeks with various unions and public service employees, who have raised several errors on the payroll of state workers.
Public servants are thus paid 35 hours a week even if they work 37.5, others would be asked without explanation for the sums paid in excess and many would be waiting for thousands of dollars in salary feedback promised by Quebec.
“We see what is happening at the SAAQ right now. We want to make a digital shift and we are not even able to adjust employee pay! protests Marc-André Martin, president of the Professional Association of Government Engineers of Quebec.
As for federal civil servants
Quebec workers have not failed to draw a parallel between their situation and the Phoenix pay system, which has caused a lot of problems for federal public servants in recent years.
Since January 2022, the MCN has been processing the remuneration of some 80,000 Quebec government employees, in particular through the SAGIR system. This computer project, dubbed “that torn by public servants, has repeatedly made headlines for its delays, misfires and exploding costs.
“We are starting to call it the baby Phoenix,” comments Martin Perreault.
“There have always been difficulties with SAGIR. The system is not capable of dealing with particularities because it is too rigid,” adds Christian Daigle, president of the Syndicat de la fonction publique et parapublique du Québec (SFPQ).
Employees who find errors in their pay should report them to an email address attached to CMN. An automated response then informs them that their message will be processed over the next few weeks.
“For us, government compensation is like a big black hole. You send a request there and it gets lost in nothingness, ”image Mathieu Lavoie, president of the union of peace officers in Quebec correctional services.
More employees
By email, the MCN claims to have deployed actions to correct the situation, including the hiring of employees.
This measure would have already led to improvements, says the department, which is facing an additional workload following the new collective agreements signed in recent months between the government and several unions.
Paid 35 hours to work 37.5
Photo provided by a source
A state engineer’s pay stub shows he gets paid 70 hours every two weeks, even though he works at least 75.
Although they work at least 37.5 hours each week, state engineers have only been paid 35 hours for nearly four months, with Quebec unable to adjust their remuneration.
“It is appalling what is happening. Any self-respecting company doesn’t do this sort of thing,” denounces Marc-André Martin, president of the Professional Association of Engineers of the Government of Quebec.
Since December 5, state engineers have increased their working hours following the entry into force of their new collective agreement. But their remuneration has never been adjusted accordingly. Worse: overtime is no longer added to pay and the hourly wage – which was to be increased – has remained the same.
“People who work 45 or 50 hours a week, they are taken to 35 hours again! And not only are they not being paid the right number of hours, but they are not getting the right rate either! It’s a real ordeal, ”protests Mr. Martin.
Nine pages of explanations
Small consolation, the engineers of the State obtained the payment of the retroactive lump sums promised by the employer. The union is however unable to confirm whether these sums are in accordance with what had been negotiated, the pay statements being “incomprehensible”.
“We are engineers and we are unable to understand our pay”, denounces Mr. Martin, who adds that the MCN has produced a nine-page document to help understand their statements.
In a communication obtained by our Bureau of Investigation, the MCN estimates that it will be able to correct all these problems by August.
Real nightmare during a work stoppage
Remuneration errors are particularly frequent among civil servants who find themselves on work stoppage, as they have to juggle with the claim for overpaid sums.
“If you involve the CNESST [Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail] or some other government agency, it’s a mess. We already generally know that when a file falls into a work accident, there will be errors in the payroll, ”explains Mathieu Lavoie, president of the union of peace officers in Quebec correctional services.
Illogical claims
This situation also resonates with wildlife protection officers, whose members have had to deal with claims for “unjustified or illogical” sums in the past.
“At one point, they demanded almost $9,000 from a person and finally, it was the employer who owed him $1,000,” illustrates the president of the union, Martin Perreault.
The MCN ensures that in the event of irregularities in the processing, the corrections made are made retroactively and on a case-by-case basis.
A man waits for $10,000 to pay for his house
A traffic controller who was counting on a lump sum of $10,000 finds himself without a down payment to buy his new house, Quebec falling behind in his payments of retroactive sums.
“It was part of my down payment, my move and my welcome tax. And without that amount, I find myself in trouble, ”says this official, who requested anonymity since he is not authorized to speak to the media.
At the end of November, the Brotherhood of Road Control Constables of Quebec formalized a new collective agreement, in which Quebec agreed to pay retroactive amounts to union members.
“It was guaranteed, it was paid no later than February 23,” explains the road controller, who adds that salary adjustments were also on the menu of this agreement.
Helped by relatives
Guaranteed that he would receive “between $8,000 and $10,000,” the worker purchased a residence last December. But the money never came in.
The man had to call on his relatives to complete his down payment.
“I was able to organize myself for that, but if the feedback is not paid for by my move, I will have to take out some credit,” he laments.
The Brotherhood of Road Control Constables of Quebec has written to Minister Éric Caire as well as to the President of the Treasury Board Sonia LeBel to denounce this situation.
“I hope that my members will not live a version made in Quebec from the Phoenix system which has had very negative impacts on federal government employees, ”reads this missive written by the president of the union, Jean-Claude Daignault.
The MCN assures that the file will be settled “in the coming weeks”.
