Public servants ‘gaming the system,’ report claims

CIVIL SERVANTS LIKE THEIR DAYS OFF: REPORT

Canada’s public servants take up to twice the number of sick days a year as private-sector workers because of different cultures, motivation to work and a “gaming of the system,” says a new report.

The report by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute concludes that the federal government should overhaul the sick-leave regime because attitudes and cultural practices in the bureaucracy are at the root of the problem “rather than biology and medicine.”

Phillip Cross, who made his name as a straightshooting analyst for Statistics Canada, says in the report that a “sickness in the system” accounts for why public servants take 10.5 days a year in sick days while private-sector employees average 6.4 days. The overall public sector — including education and health-care workers — is close to the federal average at 10.6 days a year. He said differences between the sectors are so significant that working in the public sector itself is a determinant of sick-leave use, rather than exposure to illness or injury.

“I don’t want to sound like private-sector workers are saints and public sector (workers) are sinners. If they had the same opportunity to game the system, I think it is human nature to take advantage of it, and the opportunities for gaming are much easier in the federal government,” said Cross. “The rules allow people who want to work as little as possible to succeed. Is it the system or the individual? It’s a bit of both.”

The study was based on data from StatsCan’s labour force survey, which includes all full-time employees other than the self-employed. The survey’s finding of federal employees taking 10.5 days a year is in line with the 10.3 days that a Parliamentary Budget Office report found several years ago.

Cross’s study found the gap between the private and public sectors has also been widening. Public servants took an average of 7.2 days off in 1987 — including federal employees — compared with 10.6 days today. Most of that increase came after 1995. At the same time, private-sector employees take 6.4 days, the same as they did 27 years ago. It found private-sector employees who work indoors use less than half the sick leave of indoor public-sector workers.

Cross said the study suggested private-sector workers also take liberties with sick leave when the economy is booming and employees feel secure in their jobs, but that stops in a downturn.

Sick leave varies widely by occupation, with federal prison guards using the most and public-service executives using the least. Cross argues the fact that senior managers take fewer than four days off, while clerks in business and finance are sick nine days a year, suggests the motivation to work plays a factor in deciding to book off sick. He said sick leave is seen as an entitlement and the fact that some see it as paid time off is reflected in its frequent use on Mondays and Fridays for long weekends.

THE RULES ALLOW PEOPLE WHO WANT TO WORK AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE TO SUCCEED.

Treasury Board says it doesn’t track such patterns of use, but Cross said calling in sick on Friday with “fabricated” ailments is widely known within bureaucratic circles as Vendredi-tite or Friday-itis.

“Everyone knows this goes on. Talk with any manager and they will tell you which employees will take off a Monday or Friday on a long weekend. These are a minority, but it happens.”

The public service is an increasingly highly paid professional workforce with many jobs requiring high levels of education and training. But Cross said the public service’s use of sick leave is more in line with clerks and factor workers in mundane jobs rather than with professionals and managers.

Public servants are entitled to more yearly leave than any other employees. They get 15 days a year, which can be banked and rolled over year to year. They also get 11 statutory holidays, one day personal leave, one day for volunteer work and five days for family leave. Extraordinary leave for marriages and funerals come on top of that.

That means the average bureaucrat who has worked 30 years gets 65 days of paid leave out of 260 working days a year. “No private-sector employee could compete paying its employees to be on leave for almost onequarter of the year,” said the report.

The report comes as the Liberal government has postponed collective bargaining until January.

The Liberals made election promises to negotiate a sick-leave deal with the federal unions rather than impose one as the previous Conservative government had intended but it’s unclear whether that means the Tories’ controversial deal will be on or off the table.