Supreme Court won't allow expanded Phoenix pay system lawsuit

The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear a bid to havemore federal civil servants included in a class-action lawsuit against the government over the faulty Phoenix pay system.

The system, implemented for the federal public service inFebruary 2016, has experienced countless failures since itslaunch.

Many federal government employees have not been paid for long periods of time, have been paid less than expected orhave been overpaid since the Phoenix system was set up.

In April 2018, a Quebec Superior Court judge authorized aclass-action lawsuit seeking to compensate victims of the Phoenix fiasco, but the terms excluded workers who have access to the federal grievance process.

The province's Court of Appeal rejected a request by a QuebecCity law firm to broaden the class action, prompting the firm to take the case to the Supreme Court.

As is typical, the high court gave no reasons for refusing to hear theappeal.

The law firmhandling the suit told CBC last yearthere could be between 40,000 and 70,000 claimants even if it couldn't be expanded.