Article content

This week marks two points of progress in the bid to repair the Phoenix Pay system.

Public Services and Procurement Canada revealed Tuesday the backlog of pay transactions affecting federal government employees had declined to 303,000 on Oct. 31. This marked the ninth straight month during which the department processed more pay transactions than it received — last Jan. 24, the backlog was a hefty 384,000.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Phoenix Pay: PSAC members may see change in union dues this week as system's backlog decreases Back to video

During the latest pay period, which covered six weeks, government pay officials churned through 118,000 transactions while receiving 110,000.

Including pay transactions of a more administrative nature, the total backlog at the end of October was 439,000 — down from a peak of 553,000 last Jan. 24.

The second bit of progress will be noticed Wednesday by many unionized government employees.

Nov. 14 marks the first pay period in which the Phoenix Pay system will be applying adjustments to the amount of union dues paid. The Phoenix pay regime failed from its inception to adapt to changes in dues owing in a variety of circumstances, ranging from new hires to dues hikes.