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There seems no end to the knock-on effects of the federal government’s rollout of Phoenix Pay, the upgraded human resources system that was supposed to save tens of millions of dollars annually.

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Treasury Board has advised public service executives not to pay employees automatically on March 31 for “excess” vacation, travel and time-off in lieu of overtime earned during the previous 12 months — unless employees request it.

Under normal rules, public servants are limited in the amount of time they may carry over from one year to the next. Anything over the maximum set by Treasury Board policy or union agreement — typically five or six weeks — is automatically paid out in cash on March 31, the end of the government’s fiscal year.

The rules are to prevent the creation of large time banks that allow employees to take lengthy leaves of absence. But the government is trying to reduce as many demands as possible on the Phoenix pay system, which is still grappling with a backlog that will take months to fix.