Some federal employees and retirees have been living under the shadow of Phoenix and related financial pressures for over four years.
The Treasury Board has published the next element of the Phoenix damages agreement that was co-developed with several federal public service unions in June 2019.
This claims process is designed to compensate individuals who cashed in on investments such as RRSPs, missed opportunities to earn interest on savings accounts, or experienced delays in receiving their severance, pension or pay and were not able to earn interest on those sums. It is meant to complement the existing measures to reimburse those who incurred out-of-pocket expenses or financial losses due to Phoenix pay issues.
Who can submit a claim?
You can request compensation for financial costs and lost investment income if you:
-Experienced any of the following situations:
- You cashed in, in part or in whole, a publicly available financial investment instrument (that you owned prior to experiencing Phoenix pay problems) because your pay was late. These could be investment instruments such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, interest-bearing accounts and guaranteed investment certificates (GIC);
- You had to withdraw money early from a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) because you were not paid by the Phoenix pay system;
- Your pay, severance or pension was delayed because of problems with the Phoenix pay system;
- You had to pay interest on a loan, mortgage, credit card or other debt because your severance or pension payment was late.
-Estimated that your claim for losses is greater than the one-time threshold of $1,500.
-Are eligible to compensation for severe damages under the Phoenix damages agreement or are the legal representative of a former employee or represent the estate of a deceased employee.
For more information regarding how the $1,500 threshold works, what you can claim and how to submit a claim, please consult the Treasury Board website.
Any enquiries regarding this process should be directed to the Treasury Board Secretariat by phone (toll-free) at 1-877-636-0656 or by email at questions@tbs-sct.gc.ca.
Update on Retired Executives (EX) Retroactive Economic Increase Payments
On Feb. 11, 2020, TBS-OCHRO reported that close to 90% of current executives in departments served by the Pay Centre have received their retroactive lump sum payment. This work is ongoing and the current plan is to commence the processing of retroactive payments due to retired executives once 100% of payments to current executives served by the Pay Centre have been processed.
OCHRO and the Pay Centre will continue to provide updates on a bi-weekly basis until the work is complete. For further updates, refer to the latest APEX newsletter.