Pacific Rim National Park Reserve staff and local Canadian Coast Guard personel are expected to join a nation-wide protest on Wednesday.
The local federal government employees will be demonstrating their frustration over the Phoenix pay system from 4-5 p.m. at the West Coast Junction.
Public Service Alliance of Canada’s Regional Executive Vice President Jamey Mills represents 17,000 federal government employees in B.C. and said the Phoenix pay system has been a nightmare since the federal government brought it in as a cost savings measure two years ago.
“For the past two years, our members have not been getting paid correctly or on time,” Mills told the Westerly News. “We’ve had members that don’t get paid at all, members that get grossly overpaid by thousands of dollars and everything in between.”
He said the Feb. 28 demonstrations will be going on across the country.
“You’re going to see coast to coast to coast action,” he said. “At the end of the day what our members want is to be paid correctly and on time for the hard work that they do…We’ve continued to provide services in Parks, to provide services in the Coast Guard, to ensure taxes are collected, that our food is inspected, that our borders are guarded and, every two weeks, it’s a roulette of whether or not we’re going to be paid correctly or on time.”