Nurse on hook for $30,000 over what she says is inaccurate GN payroll audit
Several weeks of emails show her case is ‘priority,’ yet nothing has changed
Jennifer Corcoran is a nurse who spent years working for the Nunavut government, only to be told she owes her employer $30,000. Corcoran shared documents with Nunatsiaq News that appear to show clear discrepancies between her pay records and what an audit of her payroll says. (Photo courtesy of Jennifer Corcoran)
A former Nunavut nurse says the Government of Nunavut is going after her for more than $30,000 based on what she believes is an inaccurate audit of her payroll — and nobody is helping her sort the issue out.
Jennifer Corcoran was a full-time government employee from August 2022 to March 2024, but has worked in Nunavut on and off since 2020.
The audit, completed June 28, says the GN paid Corcoran approximately $10,000 for hours she did not work, $19,000 for special allowance pay she is not entitled to, and $1,800 for overdrawn sick leave.
The audit also identifies $268 in what it calls “rent arrears” from Corcoran’s time in Rankin Inlet, which she also says she doesn’t understand.
“I’m at the end of my rope,” Corcoran told Nunatsiaq News about her dealings with the GN over the audit.
She shared her payroll stubs and a copy of her audit report with Nunatsiaq News. There appear to be clear discrepancies between the two.
For instance, pay stubs for three pay periods — between Feb. 8 and March 12 this year — show Corcoran received no pay. But her audit report says she was erroneously paid approximately $9,000 between these dates.
Corcoran, though, was hospitalized on Feb. 4 and resigned her job due to illness on March 12.
She said she has made several attempts to share her pay stubs with the Department of Human Resources as well as get copies of her annual leave and time-in-lieu records, which would help her compare other aspects of the audit’s findings.
She shared several emails from the past several weeks where GN representatives call her case a “priority” and indicate her audit will receive a “review.” But Corcoran remains unclear about timelines for this review or what it might entail. In the meantime, nothing about her situation has changed.
The federal government informed Corcoran on July 29 that $11,000 in pension contributions have been allocated toward her debt. Six weeks later, on Sept. 13, she received a warning from GN collections staff reminding her to pay the full $30,000 to avoid “further collection efforts.”
She said at this point, the GN’s actions feel like “downright harassment.”
This situation is not rare among GN employees, said Daniel Kinsella, executive director of the Nunavut Employees Union.
“I’ve heard of audits coming back with different numbers,” he said. “Four audits, four times, different numbers.”
Kinsella said it’s “disgraceful,” because payroll and audit errors lead to staff losing faith in the system and “people suffer.”
Apart from the discrepancies, Corcoran expressed concern about the GN’s decision to claw back her special allowance pay. She said the question over whether licensed practical nurses like her are eligible to receive that pay is being challenged by the GN and is headed to arbitration with the Nunavut Employees Union.
Kinsella said he’s aware of the GN’s policy to claw back special allowance pay.
“They will say the law says we have to recover debts, but we should have a common understanding of whether there is a debt or not,” Kinsella said.
Nunatsiaq News contacted the departments of Human Resources and Health to ask what people should do if they find themselves in Corcoran’s situation, as well as about the GN’s policy on clawing back allowance payments that are under arbitration.
Nobody with the GN would comment on Corcoran’s individual matter. However, responses from the departments of Finance, Health and Human Resources said the territorial government collects debts in accordance with its own policies.
“When issues arise with employment records, the GN works with the employee and NEU representative to address any concerns or resolve disputes through arbitration,” said Chelsea Halvorson, acting manager of communications with the Department of Health.
Corcoran, who is now working as a nurse in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., fought back tears during parts of her interview.
“I feel like I’m just sending emails and bugging people with no result,” she said.
“Now obviously I’m the problem because I keep doing this and nothing is happening. So where do I just say the hell with it and give up? But another part of me says, ‘I don’t want this to happen to somebody else.’”
Rules for working with the GN>
1. Assume incompetence at all times.
2. Keep all records and check regularly.
3. Record all conversations of importance.
4. Retain a lawyer early and often.
5. Purchase a one-way ticket with Canadian North to evade accountability.
Nah, the minister is from here and probably wouldn’t want to leave.
Justice HR is just as bad or worse
Now this may highlight why the GN can not retain Health staff.
And this is one of a million reasons why we need to go back to NWT
Yes….we should have remained NWT.
All the north’s population would have been taken care of and not forgotten.
The difference with the Nwt is that they don’t have a mechanism that supports incompetence. Nunavut’s article 23 was supposed to empower inuit into positions they’re not qualified for through training but we all know how well that’s going.
Try telling that to those who did enroll, get training and build successful careers with the $43,000,000+ Canada provided between 1994 and 2000 for training.
This happened to both my partner and I in different departments but particularly high number as a nurse. Unpaid shift differentials and lost overtime sheets are so common and you lose faith by the fifth time asking your manager and Health HR what happened. In my situation the Union didn’t file a grievance when I asked them to and then I later find out I am “out of time” under the agreement to challenge.
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To this nurse i’ll tell you this. GN collections doesn’t do anything. They don’t mess with your credit score and don’t mess with your CRA refunds either. Just stop responding and they’ll eventually be bared by statute of limitations. I tried to sort this out as well but all HR can do is show me grainy scans of henscratch that said I owe them high four figures. I said if they can’t explain it to me they can’t explain it to a judge so bring it on.
When working for ANYONE, ALWAYS keep track of your hours or work and your leave. Record you reasons for leave and put them in a binder! Always journal your interactions with Executives, Directors or managers and HR and ALWAYS email the paper trails with date and TIMES STAMPS! Always ask for the other person to reiterate the discussed topics and make sure you keep logs of every deposit and or amounts owing. DO NOT get taken advantage of on either end.
“Thank you for taking the time to speak with me earlier today, I’m just taking a quick moment to summarize my understanding of our call/meeting to make sure I didn’t miss anything important. {THEN WRITE ALL THE IMPORTANT DETAILS AND COMMITMENTS}. Thank you again, I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me”
Time to go after the ministry of health on this.
I would pin this on the great leader,lol
I am in a similar position with Health following resignation and I cant get any straight answers… I dont know who has been the HR head the last few years but there were no records kept and now they seem to be making up numbers following an “audit”.
To those quitting: get on the online platform and print all of your paystubs before you leave! GN wont help you after the fact because it is evidence they dont know what they are doing.
There is Health HR who often lose the paperwork and do these bogus payroll audits because they messed up and can’t make numbers on a spreadsheet match.
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Then there is HR HR , which is the department that actually deals with collections, benefits and payroll. It’s who Health HR feeds.
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Iqaluit office was managed by a guy named Shawn and he basically never returned calls or inquiries when the frontliners couldn’t answer basic queries like, where is the 30 hours of overtime I provided signed forms for 4 weeks ago?
Some employees don’t know when to retire!!
Why hasn’t the Health HR department in Rankin Inlet responded to Nunatsiaq News? It is my understanding that they have a tendency to delay responding to staff leave requests for up to 2 months due to the absence of personnel in the office. What measures has the director taken to address the situation in the Rankin Inlet office? Additionally, has the Finance Department ensured the accuracy of the provided numbers? Shouldn’t the employee have submitted her leave request for the period in February when she was on medical leave? There are numerous unanswered questions, and both departments are expected to demonstrate transparency regarding the reasons why the employee was not provided with accurate information.
I lost all from their GN audit in 2017 when I retired. They still want another same amount from me today for 2017.
Former manager of HR Health. Incompetent and unhelpful. Retired, thank goodness.
Current manager of health HR. Here’s hoping the new one isn’t as incompetent and knows what they’re doing.
All the HR assistants who:
– ask us to sign our Year End Balances forms but, when we question the figures, they can’t explain it themselves yet they want us to sign the forms!
– don’t understand the union collective agreement
– require multiple prompts to reply to emails sent days or weeks ago
– defer questions that are even a little bit complex – which they still ought to know – to their manager, who is often unavailable
– and the list goes on
How do some of these staff get their job in HR is a wonder to me. And I do wonder plenty. Is it just a northern thing where standards are so low?
It’s article 23 at work.
These “HR assistants” are supposed to be able to gain the skills required for the job they already got hired for through “on-the-job training”. These jobs require a certain level of skill and competency, but many hires have the equivalent of grade 9 education.
Problem is you can’t force anyone to do training, so once they have the cushy office job and staff housing secured they can just sit back and wait for their next payday every 2 weeks.
But anyway, let’s decolonize HR.
Article 23 and the GN do not stipulate that an incompetent individual should be hired solely based on their status as beneficiaries. The responsibility for hiring lies with the managers and directors, who appear to be favoring personal relationships in their hiring practices, thus perpetuating nepotism within the GN.
How embarrassing to have a dysfunctional government.
USA! USA!
“Phoenix”
NWT
Nunavut Government of N O T H I N G means
PPJ
The article fails to mention the use of electronic systems for payroll and leave records and was curious if such systems also contribute to discrepancies or failures in accurate time-keeping.
I’ve heard of RCMP officers unable to keep staff housing because of electronic payroll failures. That Microsoft glitch that shut down the world also scared me. What would happen if Bamboo, ePayroll or Ceridian crashed. We would literally have no ability to buy food or essentials. I absolutely dislike the sheer sole dependency on digital systems. It really screws us up beyond measure.
I worked with Jenn in Rankin Inlet so, I can say first hand with regards to electronic pay systems that we submit (and still do) paper copies of our hours to our manager every 2 weeks. Our manager then hands over to Finance, where a half dozen other hands touch it before we get paid for those hours 3 weeks later.
It’s an archaic system.
LOL…one thumbs down for this comment was probably from someone at HR.
By the way, it’s well past April. Where’s my Year End Balance, which nobody can explain (including the HR assistants )?
I have a client who Health HR is chasing for a week of special leave when he was at his father’s funeral.
This appears to be based on the principle that if you keep someone in casual status for a long time, no one in their family will die.
Leave and attendance should be recorded and signed off each year. Audit is great to improve the GNs own record and leave systems.
It is NOT legitimate to chase down former employees to pay for GNs own mistakes and bad records.
Regrettably, the majority of GN employees are subject to file audits exclusively upon resignation, termination, or in instances of discrepancies in their balance. Seasoned employees exploit this protocol by leveraging their tenure to evade scrutiny.
It is imperative to underscore that when availing of any form of leave, whether in the capacity of a clerk, manager, director, or even a president, the submission of requisite documentation to substantiate the leave application is mandatory. This adherence to protocol is universally applicable across organizations, as strict compliance with the HR Manual is unwavering.
Now that is a mouthful of a response. But it is entirely a blame the victim and hoist the paperwork kind of reply.
If someone in the GN was happy enough with the paperwork to pay in the first place, then the onus is on them to show that something has changed and there is a reason to withdraw that approval. The fact that they no longer retain the paperwork is not sufficient to demand repayment.
ONLY IF you deceived, lied or cheated can they legitimately ask for repayment.
The employer controls the paperwork, they retain the records and they make the decision to pay based on that paperwork at the time.
The legal principle is called ESTOPPEL.
Your name sounds familiar, and if I’m remembering right, you’ve lived in Nunavut for quite a while. It’s well known that when someone in the community passes away, most of the staff hears about it informally. Usually, HR doesn’t require formal paperwork for things like marriages, unless it’s for something like medical appointments or bereavement leave. However. The final decision often depends on the employee and their supervisor. Typically, it’s the supervisor who approves emergency leave when requested. But if an employee’s performance starts to suffer due to absenteeism or missed work, that’s when more formal documentation for special leave might be needed.