Pay Center makes calculation error in Government Members retroactive payments
Dear members of IBEW 2228,
Recently the Federal Government Pay Center contacted the Local to inform us they had made an error in the mass retroactive calculation that was processed for the “EL” classification group on November 26, 2019 and October 2, 2019 resulting in an overpayment.
There was no clear explanation as to why the departmental error occurred, rather only what error had occurred.
The Local received the following statement late Sunday evening ( March 7th, 2021 ) from Public Services and Procurement Canada;
“This overpayment was caused because the second year of the retroactive payment was processed at 5.082% instead of 4.04% (a discrepancy of 1.042%), as stated in the Agreement Between the Treasury Board and the Local 2228 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
To resolve this issue, PSPC implemented an automated solution to recover the overpayment amount (approximate range of between $4 and $180) from each impacted EL group employee. Since the overpayment is estimated to be less than 10% of the employee’s gross biweekly pay, it will be recovered automatically from their March 17, 2021, pay. “
The Local is attempting to have this recovery of funds stopped in order to explore other options with the employer, however, due to the extremely short notice and the reality of the government pay cycle this may not be possible.
The Local is exploring its Legal recourse options to this error caused by the employer
In Solidarity
Paul Cameron
Business Manager/ Financial Secretary.