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July 27th, 2017

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Find Out What it Means and Pay Public Servants

OTTAWA – The NDP’s Labour Critic, Sheri Benson (Saskatoon West), is calling on the Liberal government to put its words into action and show respect for Canada’s public servants, once and for all.

“We have heard, over the last year and half, many heartbreaking stories from public servants who have been paid incorrectly, or not at all by the Liberal government,” said Benson. “The Phoenix pay system fiasco has forced many to max-out their credit cards, dip into retirement savings or incur late fees because they are waiting on their hard-earned paycheques.”

Since the ill-advised roll out of the Phoenix pay system, thousands of public servants have experienced disastrous pay issues. The government has offered to help reimburse some of the expenses incurred as a result of delayed or incorrect pay, but the amount paid out by the Liberals is only a small fraction of what has been claimed by workers.

“The fact that this government seemed willing to reimburse public servants for expenses which were caused by the Liberals’ own failure was fair, and gave hope to unpaid workers. But, we’ve since learned that many claims have not come close to being fully reimbursed, and that many have been outright rejected without the courtesy of an explanation from this Liberal government,” added Benson. “The Trudeau government said they would be different; they said they would respect our public service. I think it’s time they look up the word respect and fix this fiasco.”