Feds extending contracts for temporary Pay Centre employees to process early retirements, layoffs

A federal office tower in Ottawa. Aug. 2, 2021. (Jackie Perez / CTV News Ottawa)

The federal government is extending the contracts of hundreds of temporary employees to help process payments and paperwork for public servants set to leave through job cuts and attrition.

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) says it is in the process of extending the employment for between 750 and 800 term employees at the Pay Centre.

“This capacity is made up primarily of compensation advisors who process pay cases directly and is designed to help address operational pressures at the Pay Centre,” a spokesperson for PSPC said in a statement.

The spring economic update included $36 million in one-time funding for “surge capacity at the Pay Centre to implement the comprehensive expenditure review.”

The federal government is looking to reduce the size of the federal public service by 28,000 positions over the next three years, including 12,000 employees and 350 executive positions cut through attrition and early retirement packages.

Earlier this month, the parliamentary budget watchdog warned the comprehensive expenditure review and early retirements could add pressure to the Phoenix Pay System and the government’s attempts to address a backlog of pay issues.

“Workforce adjustment and early retirements of employees with unresolved issues might compound the complexity of the overall caseloads and hinder the ability to redeploy employees effectively across departments as the planned reductions deepen to the 15 per cent target,” Annette Ryan said in a report.

As of April 22, there were 214,000 transactions waiting to be processed through the Phoenix Pay System.

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