St. John's woman loses home after Phoenix pay fiasco

#1

Post by ovis » Wed, Jun 29, 2022, 1:51 PM UTC

St. John's woman loses home after Phoenix pay fiasco
cbc.ca

Re: St. John's woman loses home after Phoenix pay fiasco

#2

Post by thatguy0900 » Wed, Jun 29, 2022, 2:12 PM UTC

I'm confused about why she stayed? It doesn't say she ever got any money back. I would be gone after the first 0$ check, why would you stay after that?

Re: St. John's woman loses home after Phoenix pay fiasco

#3

Post by spacemanmatt » Wed, Jun 29, 2022, 2:22 PM UTC

IBM famously screwed up Texas' transit tag billing, too.

Re: St. John's woman loses home after Phoenix pay fiasco

#4

Post by faeriechangling » Wed, Jun 29, 2022, 2:26 PM UTC

thatguy0900 wrote: post #2

I'm confused about why she stayed? It doesn't say she ever got any money back. I would be gone after the first 0$ check, why would you stay after that?

She was working for the Canadian government, not shady joe’s fix-it shop, and thus likely thought the issue would be resolved long term.

Plus I’m guessing she was on a defined benefit pension, creating an incentive to stay.

Re: St. John's woman loses home after Phoenix pay fiasco

#5

Post by tartoran » Wed, Jun 29, 2022, 2:29 PM UTC

Giant systems of immense complexity that nobody can understand, what could go wrong? And even if they’re a complete failure, they’ll never admit to it

Re: St. John's woman loses home after Phoenix pay fiasco

#6

Post by boopboopbadoop » Wed, Jun 29, 2022, 2:29 PM UTC

thatguy0900 wrote: post #2

I'm confused about why she stayed? It doesn't say she ever got any money back. I would be gone after the first 0$ check, why would you stay after that?

I’d imagine it’s harder to come by jobs out there, and she had a reasonable belief that the gov would eventually pay her.

Re: St. John's woman loses home after Phoenix pay fiasco

#7

Post by tartoran » Wed, Jun 29, 2022, 2:30 PM UTC

thatguy0900 wrote: post #2

I'm confused about why she stayed? It doesn't say she ever got any money back. I would be gone after the first 0$ check, why would you stay after that?

She stayed probably for the lack of other opportunities and the hope the government would get their crap together.

Re: St. John's woman loses home after Phoenix pay fiasco

#8

Post by dmix » Wed, Jun 29, 2022, 2:34 PM UTC

It's been 5 years since she first got $0 paychecks and this still hasn't been resolved?

I'm confused why the union or whoever can't sue the government on their behalf. Or some lawyer takes on a bunch of their cases if it's 200k people affected.

Re: St. John's woman loses home after Phoenix pay fiasco

#9

Post by mig39 » Wed, Jun 29, 2022, 2:41 PM UTC

thatguy0900 wrote: post #2

I'm confused about why she stayed? It doesn't say she ever got any money back. I would be gone after the first 0$ check, why would you stay after that?

Jobs, especially these kinds of jobs, are scarce in Newfoundland.

I'm sure if she had options for other employment, she would have taken them. Even when working for CRA, she was only a seasonal contractor.

Re: St. John's woman loses home after Phoenix pay fiasco

#10

Post by stewx » Wed, Jun 29, 2022, 2:54 PM UTC

I read one expert describe the Phoenix pay system as "garbage in, garbage out". The government signed hundreds of separate collective bargaining agreements with public sector unions, each with their own different rules for pay, overtime, etc, making the system highly complex. Because of this complexity, the software handling it is full of bugs. Arguably it's partially a failure on the government's part not to negotiate a standard set of pay practices.