Spirit Island in Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park. Workers in Alberta say their morale is waning as ambassadors for some of Canada's most recognized tourist destinations.The Canadian Press
Workers at Alberta's Jasper National Park are expected to greet thousands of tourists with a smile every day. But it's a little harder to do now that they're not getting paid properly – or at all – for the hours they're putting in.
According to Parks Canada, about 170 of its 1,300 employees in Alberta, including seasonal workers at Jasper National Park, have reported missing entire paycheques or being over- or underpaid. The federal government's new Phoenix compensation system has been an ongoing problem since it rolled out in February, affecting the pay of more than 80,000 public servants nationwide. Parks Canada says the majority of cases have been related to seasonal employees or students.
Workers in Alberta told The Globe and Mail that their morale is waning as ambassadors for some of Canada's most-recognized tourist destinations. They asked to not be identified over concerns of reprisals at work.
"In my job, we talk to a couple thousand people a day that come through the park so it's super important that we're all 100-per-cent game-on – the smile, the welcome, the 'hello, bonjour,'" said a Jasper National Park employee. "If that means getting paid properly … then that's very important."
The employee, who is one of 150 summer students hired by Parks Canada in Alberta, said he was paid $12.77 an hour – the base hourly rate for university undergraduate students – from May until mid-July, despite signing a contract saying he would earn $21 an hour. After months of collecting about half of his proper pay, he received all of his back pay on July 15.
While some Parks Canada workers have seen their pay corrected, others are dealing with increasingly complex compensation problems as the summer goes on.
Another Jasper National Park employee said he wasn't paid at all from the end of March to June. When he was finally paid again, the government overpaid him a total of $5,000 on two paycheques. Although he tried to put the overpayment aside and not spend it, he was forced to use some of it to pay back his family, who lent him money when he wasn't getting paid at all, and pay down his credit-card bill.
His situation was further complicated two weeks ago when he wasn't paid again. He asked Parks Canada for a salary advance, but they refused because he had received the $5,000 overpayment.
"I'm now being denied emergency salary advances by my HR department because they assume that because I just have this extra money I should be able to dip into that … but I don't want to in case Phoenix comes for it."
Desperate for money, he is preparing to sell some personal possessions to raise some immediate cash.
So, why is he still going to work if he's not being paid? With his contract ending in October, he has his eyes set on a permanent job at the park and knows he has to keep going to work if he wants a shot at the position.
The union representing Parks Canada employees said some workers have gone 16 weeks without a paycheque, and it's bringing them down financially and emotionally.
"On the outside, it's all smiles and 'How are you? Welcome to the park,'… but I know that morale is deeply affected by this," said Chris Aylward, vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
Public Services and Procurement Minister Judy Foote said the pay system has to be fixed, especially for students.
"We have to change the system. We have to find a way to make sure that students get paid, because students, of all people, don't have that savings account that they can dip into," Ms. Foote told The Globe on Thursday.
The government hopes to resolve all of the Phoenix pay problems by the end of October. On Thursday, Ottawa announced it will open three temporary pay hubs and a new Toronto call centre to help speed up the process.