But Saskatchewan Health Authority says 'instances where employees do not receive their pay are being addressed quickly'
A workers’ union is raising concerns over healthcare workers’ experiences with receiving their pay, pointing to a system that it says is problematic.
“Our members are missing hundreds, even upwards of a thousand dollars in some cases, on their paycheques, and that is unacceptable,” said Bashir Jalloh, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 5430 health-care workers president, in a Global News report.
The problem is in the AIMS payroll software, which the provincial government relaunched for the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) two months ago, according to the report.
“The system is set up in such a way that when there’s a problem with your pay, you create a ticket,” Jalloh said in the report.
“Sometimes they respond — but it’s usually two weeks, three weeks and people are not getting paid and they’re not getting any response. There is a real apprehension from our members.”
Struggles with cost of living
The problems come at a time when healthcare workers are struggling with the cost of living, according to CUPE 5430.
“There are cases where somebody was short $1,088 and when we raised that issue with the employer, all they did was send a $375 cheque to them,” said Jalloh, according to the report.
“At a time when gas, rent and groceries are getting more and more expensive, it is essential that our health providers are getting paid for their work. We need urgent action from the SHA and the provincial government to fix these issues and work to ensure it does not happen again.”
Initially launched in 2021 to manage payroll, scheduling, human resources and finances, the AIMS payroll system was quickly shut down due to problem, according to the report.
This year, the federal government set aside $135 million under Budget 2024 to boost the development of Dayforce – which is expected to replace the problematic Phoenix pay system within the next few years.
Issues ‘being addressed quickly,’ says SHA
Now, CUPE is calling on the SHA and the Saskatchewan government to address the problems with the AIMS payroll software.
The SHA acknowledged that there are problems with the system, but noted that issues are being addressed.
“Instances where employees do not receive their pay are being addressed quickly, and all staff are being paid,” said Mike Northcott, CHRO at the SHA and member of the AIMS executive steering committee, in the Global News report. “As issues are identified, advances are processed.”
Northcott also said that “all missing wages from the first and second payroll runs have now been paid out to employees.”
He said that the number of employees affected by the issue in the first pay run was fewer than 1%, and those affected by the same issue in the second pay run was well below that.
The AIMS system processes approximately 48,000 payslips in each pay period, according to the Global News report.
In February, On the eighth anniversary of the launch of the Phoenix pay system, three unions called on the federal government to provide additional compensation for damages to workers who have been impacted by the system’s troubles.
“All public service employees deserve to be paid accurately and on time,” said Anita Anand, president of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS).
