The Government of Canada reached an agreement with a number of bargaining agents to compensate current and former employees for damages caused by the Phoenix pay system. This is for financial and/or non-financial damages, including but not limited to interest, general stress, aggravation and lost time.

Note: Employees of separate agencies who have a similar agreement with their bargaining agents may submit a claim. Those bargaining agents are included in the list above.

you had to pay interest on a loan, mortgage, credit card or other debt because your severance or pension payment was paid late

your pay, severance or pension was delayed because of problems with the Phoenix pay system

you had to withdraw money early from a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) because you were not paid by the Phoenix pay system

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 can request compensation for financial costs and lost investment income if you are in a position to check all the boxes below:

This threshold applies only once for severe damages claims. You can combine several items in one claim to ensure the one-time threshold is met. Once you have met the threshold, it will not apply to any subsequent claims submitted for compensation for damages for severe impacts caused by the Phoenix pay system, including this claims process and the process for “Severe personal or financial hardship” currently in development.

If you think your claim for such damages will exceed $1,500, you can submit a claim through this process.

A one-time threshold of $1,500 will apply in certain cases as specified in section 21 of the damages agreement. This means that you will receive compensation if the total amount of the damages to be paid for severe impacts caused by the Phoenix pay system, including financial costs and lost investment income, is greater than $1,500.

What I can claim

Each person is in a different situation. Claims for financial costs and lost investment income will be processed on a case-by-case basis.

You can claim lost investment income during the period in which you were unpaid. The amount you can claim cannot be greater that the amount of your missed net pay. In other words, if your net missing pay was for $2,000 but you cashed in a Guaranteed Investment Certificate that was for $5,000, we would refund the lost interest only on $2,000.

We realize that you may not be in a position to figure out the exact amount that you can claim. The claims office can assist you and do the math for you, and provide the breakdown to you.

You may claim interest if your pay, severance pay or pension payment was delayed beyond what would be normal established processing times:

Severance payments should be processed within thirty (30) days of receipt of the severance pay annex by the Public Service Pay Centre.

Pension payments should be processed within one hundred and twenty (120) days of the date the application is approved by the Government of Canada Pension Centre, or within forty five (45) days of receipt of all required documents by the Pension Centre, whichever is later.

The interest will be calculated as the average Bank of Canada discount rate from the previous month plus 3% from the date the payment should have been made to the date the payment was issued. You may want to consult the interest rate table to estimate how much you could claim. Since 2016, the interest rate has varied between 3.75% and 5.00%.

Note that that since 2016, there has been an out-of-pocket claims process for employees who incurred additional expenses because of Phoenix pay problems.

Example 1: interest on late payment Daniel, a CS-05, filed his retirement paperwork on May 1, 2016 , and expected his net severance payment (after source deductions) of about $50,000 by June 1, 2016 . Because the severance pay was paid only on March 31, 2017 , ten months later, Daniel may be entitled to compensation: he can file a claim for interest on the late payment. The amount of compensation Daniel is entitled to is calculated using the average Bank of Canada discount rate from the previous month plus 3% and is based on ten months where the time to issue the payment exceeded the normal established processing timelines. The eligible compensation is $1,562.50. Is Daniel eligible to file this type of claims? Yes! As a CS-05, he was a member of PIPSC, who has signed the Phoenix Damages Agreement. His severance was paid much later than the normal 30-day processing time. His compensation for financial loss is greater than the $1,500 threshold required for this type of claim.

Example 2: early withdrawal from a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) Sam an EC-05, was underpaid between April and October 2018. In order to pay his living expenses, he withdrew $15,000 from his RRSP in January 2019. He received payment for the missing net pay of $15,000 in February, 2019. The amount of compensation Sam could be entitled to is based on a comparison of his actual income tax liabilities in 2018 and 2019 versus the tax liability he would have incurred had he not withdrawn the funds from his RRSP in 2019 but had left them there to be withdrawn as a RRIF payment in future years. The eligible compensation is $4,000. Since he was underpaid for 15 pay periods, Sam is also eligible to receive compensation for interest on his missing pay. Using the average Bank of Canada discount rate from the previous month plus 3% from the date his pay should have been made to the date it was issued, this interest compensation is $400. Sam’s total compensation is $4,400. Is Sam eligible to file this type of claim? Yes! As an EC-05, he was a member of CAPE, who has signed the Phoenix Damages Agreement. His regular pay was not fully paid on time. His compensation for financial loss is over the $1,500 threshold required for this type of claim. Note that if Sam had not made an early withdrawal from her RRSP, the compensation would have only been for the interest on missing pay ($400). In this situation, he would not have been eligible for compensation under the terms of the agreement since the amount does not exceed the $1,500 threshold.