I'm going to intervene here for a minute because I have a pet peeve, which is that the Government of Canada seems to be having a hard time paying its employees on time in certain departments. I'm astounded by this.
I made this remark a month or so ago, and since then I've received a deluge of information. Some of the information I've received is that in some departments they've centralized the payroll function away from the benefits function. In other areas, though, the real problem is that this group of people is being paid perhaps as much as $10,000 less a year than they are in other unions--and I believe under your union--and that's the compensation and benefits advisors. I'm told they are hired. They have to be trained for two years, but the workload is so heavy and there are many opportunities in other parts, so they leave, and that's part of the problem. It's not really an administrative problem. It's a problem perhaps that they're not being paid enough or perhaps it's the way it's organized. There are two issues there.
I'm told that in those departments where they haven't really centralized the payroll function away from the others, it's still working well, but it's a huge challenge. I'm wondering, now that you're starting the new negotiations, whether you will try to move this group of people up to a higher category. Obviously we have to do something, because people aren't going to work for us if we can't pay them. I've heard so many horror stories lately. I've heard that people who have a promotion go to another department and they can't get their increase in salary. They can't even get their bus pass covered because they haven't been transferred properly. People are sick and don't get their disability because they can't seem to get it done. People want to take their pensions and they can't because they're not being processed.
It's a real challenge, and I'd like you to speak to this.