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Longtime pay advisers suspect the sudden surge of complaints over the past month was partly triggered by the flood of employees who come to work in seasonal or student jobs for the summer. Last year, the government hired nearly 10,400 students – 6,200 of them for summer jobs from May to August.

Some who recently began summer jobs say they haven’t seen a penny since they started work in April or May. One student who has worked several years on contracts of a few hours a week during the school year said her most recent payment was still for work she did months ago.

She has since been bumped up to a higher rate and is working full-time for the summer while taking summer classes. She paid her tuition upfront, thinking she would be paid regularly to cover her rent and other expenses. She finally had to turn to her parents for help.

“Honestly, I am so discouraged. It’s difficult to motivate yourself to do work that you are not being paid for … I consider myself a hard-working employee and I think I have been very patient and understanding with regards to my untimely pay,” she told the Citizen.

“I recognize that some people have savings to fall back on in hard financial times but as a student I am not one of these people and I am certain many regular full-time employees would face some form of hardship if they missed a pay too. It’s just not fair.”

Last week, PSAC leaders sought an emergency meeting with top Public Works officials.

On top of the complaints from unpaid workers, PSAC was getting an earful from the 550 pay advisers working in Miramichi. The union said it had reports that a growing number were on sick leave. As well, some were infuriated that management had ordered them to work 30 hours of mandatory overtime over two weeks to deal with a backlog of paycheques. (That order was later changed to ask for volunteers to work extra hours to help catch up.)