Absenteeism among federal public service workers skyrockets

I think that these statistics are well below the actual and we would actually be horrified to know the actual numbers. But these people should not be singled out solely because their provincial counterparts are also playing hooky. Sick benefit days should be limited because if it don't cost you to stay home, what do you think is going to happen, you're going to stay home. Here's a good one- NO DOCTOR"S NOTE after two days- deduction in pay or make up the time

I agree with the previous comment. Also, you would be surprise to see how many people, that are on Employment Insurance, calling in sick or not available just to escape available working hours. In some industries, there are full time employees that end up " On call"certain days. Once they are qualified for the EI it is very difficult to get them in for their shift. The other benefit for those who don't like to work but like the paycheck is that the government, in my knowledge, does not follow up with companies to see if a qualified recipient of the EI have refused any shifts.

There is so much pressure om everyone these days that I'm not surprised that absentism has risen. Raising children, family illness, mortgages, job security, working full time, running a household, lack of time, lack of money, lack of friends, lack of a social life.... the list of stressors is long and it doesn't appear that it will decrease anytime soon.

Ever think that we're all just a bunch of whiners these days? Raising children, mortgages, job security, working full time, running a household....these are the stressors? These "stresses" have been there for previous generations but now people seem to complain about it like it's somebody elses fault. Don't have kids, rent instead of own, be good at your job...it's all within your control. How you spend your time and where you devote your resources is up to you, but you do have to choose, you can't have it all. You want more money, work harder. You want more of a social life, stop spending hours on facebook or watching TV. It's all a choice, maybe it's time we start making them and taking responsibility for their consequences.

Regarding public servant sick days....16.9 days a year, on average across all federal public servants is simply disgusting.

Many people are abusing the priviledge of paid sick leave. I work in a private sector - no show no pay. My past 18 years in the company, my staff taking unpaid sick day off is on average 2 days a year!

Doctors should not be abused by asking them for sick notes. It's not right to waste their time asking for sick notes when 3 million Canadians do not have a family doctor. Their are better ways to use doctors' time.

I know two federal civil servants and a provincial one as well. These three have a sense of entitlement with regard to sick days, they feel it is perfertly fine to take a no-questions-asked sick day just because they have something else(ie: leave town to shop) to do or they are in a bad mood or just felt tired and need a break relaxing at home watching TV et al. They sleep well at night defending their use of the days by saying there are worse then them, many do it and so either use it or lose it. The governments lack the will and guts to control this problem. If they can get the average sick days down to 4/year where it should be, would be able to trim the payroll and give the taxpayers better deal for the money..

I can think of two very workable solutions:
1) Offshore the civil servants jobs (I mean it's been done to pretty much every other industry in Canada already why not the Gov't work?).
2) Pay by the hour of work presence, or even better by work accomplished.
Neither of these options will happen though, that would eliminate all of the 'progress' that has been accomplished in equalizing pay between the genders in the past couple decades.

Canuckguy: just by knowing "two" federal civil servant and "one" provincial one does not give you the full picture. You have no idea of the stress of the back-biting managers that want a "top" job. They can threaten you, tell you your work is wrong and when you try to prove you are correct, they refuse to listen and tell you that they will have to report on your next evaluation that you cannot accept positive criticism. You can't go the the boss, because he is too busy having an affair in his office that he doesn't have time. My desk was next to his office and my "cell" mate and I had a pretty good idea what was happening. As an RN, we were not considered as nurses although we could do the work of a duty nurse, however, they would require a years to learn to do the work that we were doing. At one point, we were in the same pay category as people that laid buoys. We were even timed when we left our desks to go to the washroom. Finally all of our supervisor threats for her desired job, finally quit. She still didn't get the job she wanted, because she was too young and too inexperienced. On of the nurses that just finally had enough, walked in one day, submitted her resignation and left and never returned. I was the last survivor. Finally my doctor refused to give me permission to return to work. He knew from other doctors, some of them had taken early retirement and one great one just left, because Mrs. Bossy was telling them what to do. I loved my job and turned on my computer before I even removed my coat, so I could get to work asap. I was pushed out of a job I love. Unfortunately, the "chiefs" could do what they liked and favour who they like. One women even won a competition while in Florida celebrating her new job, before the competition took place. Yea, it great being a public servant. Try it sometime.

As a non public servant, I am totally disgusted by this issue. Although there are downsides to working for the public (when they show up), the benefits are enormous. Benefits such as these "sick" days as well as the excellent pensions and wages they receive are so out of line with those of us that pay for these benefits, that it needs to stop at some point. It never will though as we continue to see outrageous things such as this all the time. For all the complaints written in the above post, my question is...do you think that doesn't happen in the private sector? Well of course it does but those workers have to put up with it or move on and do all of this with maybe getting 2, 4, or no paid sick days per year. The private sector worker must do this with the knowlege that they will not have a nice pension to ease into by the time they are 50 or 55. Our governments need to end the madness of these cushy benefit packages that the powerful unions have pieced together for our public service. Good luck! And just so you know, I have averaged 1 or 2 sick days per year for the past 20 years or so.

My solution to this productivity sloppiness is to go to a simple maximum number of sick days per year. Anything over that would be taken without pay. Exceptions can be handled by supervisors who are paid to manage these sorts of things.

No surprise at the outrageous abuse. I think the expectation of entitlements is gone far too far in this country, and for that matter in countries around the world.
That is one of the main reasons for the current worldwide financial mess.

I worked private industry for 12 years before I worked for the provincial government for 3.5 years in 2 different departments. The abuse is unreal! Not only did most use all 10 sick days and all 10 family illness days they dont even come in on time and leave early or take a 1 and a half hour plus lunch...I would say that aolut 2 in 10 are decent hard working employees. The rest are lazy and unemployable anywhere else.
I have since left back to private and and dont miss those useless idiots at all.

I forgot to mention, its abused because you can't get fired from government. The union works hard to make sure that getting fired is impossible. In private you pull any of that crap and you would be out the door in a heartbeat.
All those 'great benefits' I got as a civil servant do not match my current benefits. As for the 'great pension' Its only great if you started young and can hack that life for 35 years without going insane. Otherwise in my case at 35 years old it was a waste of 500/month towards a pension that would pay me a 1/4 of my salary unless I work there till I am 70...like many there do. Haha Sorry for the rant but this is funny, I mean SAD!

It is very apparent that NONE of the posters here have bothered to understand how sick days work.
They are a benefit contained within the collective agreement, gained through collective bargaining.

In case none of you realize it but the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that collective bargaining is a right protected by the Canadian Constitution.

Let people think you know nothing, rather than making a statement and removing all doubt

I don't work, I don't get paid. Me and probably 70% of the workforce in Canada.

"the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that collective bargaining is a right protected by the Canadian Constitution"
Fair enough, that said though, if we as a tax payer do not wish to support that group of employee's what other option do we have? Don't like a GM? buy a Toyota/Ford/AMC. etc BUT
Don't like CUPE workers & their results? Tough. And that dear "public servant" is the rub.

Privatize everything it's the only way, police, firemen, government, transit, garbage, education.
Don't say it can't be done.
It's not nice to see the kids of the above people getting free dental care on the backs of the millions who are not in unions, where do these people think the money comes from ?
There time is nearing.

Taking that many sick days doesn't matter much. They do the same thing at work and home anyway - shopping online, watching porn, chatting on facebook...

I don't know where some of you get your information but you should do some more research. As a public servant myself with a spouse in the private sector i can see both sides of the coin. Although this is only personal experience i can tell you that my spouse gets the same "sick leave" benefits as I do. However the same public sector position as mine in the private sector makes about $20K a year more. I've had a number of friends leave the public sector recently due to this fact and our whopping 1.5% annual pay increases. you want to see disgusting numbers? look at what the private sectors pay for things like christmas parties. Parties the public sector isn't allowed to have.

Wow, what a bunch of super-healthy people we have here. Clearly you don't ever get sick and even consider yourselves beyond such pathetic, loser behaviour. Let's just hope you don't get cancer. In Canada, your 50-day cancer treatment will only be covered for 22 days. Wonder how you'll make ends meet when you get no pay for the other 28 days. (Courtesy of "Contagion Nation: A Comparison of Paid Sick Day Policies in 22 Countries", published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research . ) But I'm certain you'll just drag yourselves into work anyway; after all, cancer is no reason to slack off, is it?