Clement’s sick leave claim a turning point for unions

Bitterness sparked by comments that public servants are off an average 18.2 days a year

The turning point for many union leaders who pulled out of consultations with the Conservative government on reforming sick leave and disability benefits came the day Treasury Board President Tony Clement claimed public servants are off work an average of 18.2 days a year because of illness or injury.

To add insult to injury, Clement announced his overhaul of sick leave to reduce absenteeism during the kickoff of National Public Service Week, held to celebrate public servants’ accomplishments.

An already rocky relationship went downhill from there. That 18.2-day average — which includes all unpaid and paid sick leave — became a flashpoint that escalated into a numbers game between the unions and Clement in the court of public opinion. By last week, the unions started withdrawing from the working group created to seek input into the government’s planned overhaul of the sick leave and disability benefits.

“The day he said that was the turning point for my membership,” said Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada. “I have never got so much push back from members saying, ‘ How dare you let him get away with this and leave that impression?’”

The trust started to unravel then, said Corbett. Then came the sweeping changes to the Public Service Labour Relations Act, buried in the omnibus budget bill. Unions had no inkling such major changes, which dramatically weaken unions and their bargaining clout, were in the works.

The 17 unions appealed to Clement to remove the amendments from the bill and instead consult with unions on new legislation both government and labour could live with. Clement refused.

The unions have long argued Clement’s number of 18.2 sick days per year is misleading and unfair. They argue that Clement repeatedly links absenteeism and sick leave to leave the impression that public servants are malingerers who abuse sick leave.

The unions are hoping the Parliamentary Budget Office will help set the record straight — NDP MP Paul Dewar asked the PBO to get to the bottom of the 18 days, including what is being counted and the cost implications.

The management of sick leave is inconsistent among the departments.

The data for the 18-day average were gathered by the team Treasury Board put together when it launched its Disability Management Initiative (DMI) several years ago to get a handle on absences due to illness and what could be done to improve workplace wellness and get sick employees back to work faster.

About 11 of those days are sick days employees take whether for the flu, an injury or for prolonged illnesses — with or without a medical certificate. These people are getting paid their full salary and are using the sick days they accumulated with their years of service.

Nearly seven days are attributed to people who are sick but aren’t on payroll. They are collecting employment insurance sick benefits during the required 13-week waiting period — if they don’t have enough sick leave credits — before they can start collecting long-term disability which covers 70 per cent of their salary. They could also be on disability with a prolonged illness. The remainder is accounted for by employees injured on the job and on workers’ compensation.

The team found these absences were two-and-a-half times higher than the rates in the private sector tracked by Statistics Canada.

But a recent Statistics Canada report concluded the differences between absences from work in the private and public sector can largely be explained by three factors: public servants are unionized, and a higher proportion of them are women and older workers.

Treasury Board defended the number in a statement from Clement’s office.

“The Minister’s previous comments on absenteeism still stand: Our government intends to introduce short- and long-term disability plans that will help public servants get healthy and get back to work. We are committed to providing public servants with the best care possible.”

Some experts argue that combining unpaid and paid sick leave is unfair. James Lahey, former senior public servant who released a milestone compensation study of the public service a decade ago, said absences from sick leave and disability shouldn’t be combined.

“They are different phenomenon,” he said.

“Disability is one problem and sick leave is another, so these two issues have to be looked at separately because they are totally different problems.”

At that time, Lahey’s study found the average public servant used 8.3 days of paid sick leave. He found about 50 per cent of public servants used fewer than five sick days and between four and five per cent used more than 20 days.