The Trudeau government has decided to give federal executives a six-percent salary increase, but they won’t get any money until the troubled Phoenix system pays all unionized employees what they are owed.

Treasury Board notified the government’s 6,500 executives Thursday of the four-year package, which essentially matches the basic settlement negotiated with the 18 federal unions over the past several years. Deputy ministers and other heads of agencies are in line for the same increase.

Unionized workers are still waiting for Phoenix to complete the wage adjustments they are owed under those contracts, which are expiring and coming up for another round of bargaining.

Under the deal, executives will receive: .75 per cent increase for 2015 and 2016 and 1.25 per cent in each of the next two years. They will also get an additional “wage adjustment” top up for 2016-17.

The government also gave executives an extra day of personal leave, matching the two days of personal leave all unionized employees enjoy.

Michel Vermette, chief executive officer of the Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service of Canada (APEX), said the long overdue increases are ‘welcome,’ but they don’t address executives’ growing concerns about their compensation packages.

“It’s our view that both arms-length process for advice and benchmarking of total compensation are required,” said Vermette. “While the increases are welcomed, those rates don’t satisfy those requirements.”

Pay has become a hot-button issue for executives as they watched their salaries stall while unionized bureaucrats got up to 17 per cent increases over the last five years. They are the among the last employees to receive a raise.

The raise also comes as the giant Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) held bargaining sessions this week in a new round of collective bargaining with Treasury Board.

It’s unclear why the government took so long to make a decision on executive raises. Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick told them a year ago the issue was with Treasury Board ministers to decide.

More recently, Wernick urged executives to speak up, demand respect and advocate for how they want to be paid and managed before politicians make those decisions for them.

In a statement, Treasury Board said contract settlements have now been reached with nearly all the unions and giving similar increases to executives “will help maintain the integrated salary structure within the public service.”

“We are committed to a culture of respect for and within Canada’s public service,” said Treasury Board President Scott Brison in a statement .

“Through good faith negotiations, we have now reached 23 of 27 tentative agreements representing approximately 97 per cent of employees. These salary adjustments for executives will ensure a fair and fiscally responsible compensation adjustment for senior levels of the public service.”

The executive salary gap began in 2013-14 when the government started giving executives smaller raises than unionized employees. They since received raises totalling two per cent while unions have negotiated increases worth between seven and 17 per cent, depending on the contract.

In some cases, the salary gap narrowed between executives and the employees they supervised to the point that their staff made more.

APEX, which represents executives, pressed for raises but also an “update of the entire suite of executive salary and non-salary compensation.” Unlike other employees, executives get performance pay and bonuses. Their base salaries start at $106,900 for an Ex-1 and go up to $202,500 for an ADM or Ex-5.

APEX wants an “arms-length process” to advise government on compensation and retention of executives, something that was provided by an external advisory committee for nearly 20 years until it was dismantled several years ago.

Executives are the only federal employees who don’t have a third-party process to advise and advocate for the terms and conditions of their work. Unionized employees have collective bargaining. By law, management can’t unionize. The government can also make unilateral changes to the terms and conditions of executive employment, which it can’t do with union contracts.

The committee’s last benchmarking study of executive salaries in the Canadian labour market was done in 2010.

APEX has urged the creation of a similar board or another process that would offer government independent advice on the terms and conditions of work for executives.

Executives have long speculated Phoenix is a reason they haven’t had a raise. They surmise the government blames not only PSPC executives but all executives for departments not being ready for the Phoenix rollout.

Many predicted the government wanted to delay giving executive raises until the Phoenix pay problems of rank-and file employees are resolved. PSAC even demanded the government stop paying executives performance bonuses until employees are paid properly.

The big question is how long it will take to process the raises and wage adjustments of unionized employees so executives can get in the Phoenix queue for their raises. APEX expects executives will receive their raises by late fall or later.

Treasury Board, however, warned PSAC in April that public servants won’t know whether they have been paid the raises and back pay owed to them until June 2019.

The government offered the June 2019 deadline after it was ordered by Federal Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board to provide an update on when the contract would be implemented.