Do public sector workers deserve all those sick days?

You pay taxes to the government who then write your pay cheques... You are literally 1 step away from writing cheques to yourself...

I'll trade you my Christmas party and my 50 hours a work week for your 37.5 hour work week

I'll also trade you my 2 dozen audit files valued at about $4 billion for your 200 audits of convenience stores and families with iffy sounding tuition tax credits

I have two chidlren, one who works in the private sector, one who works in the government. The one who works in the private sector has more work experience and generally works like a dog. There is little job security and the company benefits could only be described as modest. There is no Christmas Party, as the company feels that the difficult economic times don't warrant the expense. The one who works in the government makes more money, for arguably much less work. Absenses from workl are frequent and there doesn't appear to be any end to sick days or holidays. The benefits are far superior, especially the pension and health care. Having lived in Ottawa all of my life I find it difficult to square the "overworked and underpaid' image of public servants with my own personal observations. A close friend worked in the private sector for 20+ years until being downsized (another private sector reality) and found a job as an IT consultant working for the Federal government. The difference was like night and day. The consultants, who only got paid if they showed up for work, were always there, unless extremely ill. The public servants were away constantly and most knew every possible way to get time off. Some public servants work very hard but they would be the exception and not the rule in my experience.

I have done work with a couple government offices and it was an eye opener. In DOD in Ottawa there was a woman with a small TV on her desk so she could watch her afternoon soaps. I asked her boss about it and he said he lets her so she will work the rest of the day. They also get shopping days a Christmas time to cut down on the 3-hour lunches. At Ontario Hydro in Toronto they had a board showing years of service and almost everyone working there had over 30 or 35 years in. What a morgue of a place. They said they were gone as soon as they got a buyout package. A friend told me he was run over the coals for walking 10 ft. to empty his overflowing garbage can. What a sad commentary on our workplace. And they say Canadians are not as productive as American workers. I wonder why ?

You pay taxes to the government, who then writes you a cheque for your salary. You are 1 step away from paying yourself.

I will gladly trade my Christmas party and 50 hours working for your 37.5 no stress hours per week

I well also trade my 24 audit clients publically valed at about $4b for your 200 convenience store audits and families with iffy tuition tax credits

Len should take a pill...Brad needs to learn how to spell..and Brad and Julie appear made for each other. As for me.. I gotta find something better to do with my time than read the lame comments to this article..who gives a shit about how many sick days people take?

Stop the bickering!!

Yes, UNIONIZED employees, private and public sector, pay dues which are tax deductible. Contracts are negotiated on your behalf and voted upon by memebers. Just like in real politics, many are apethetic and don't vote, take full advantage of the 'benefits' negotiated, but cry wolf at the costs....

As far as entitlement and the arguements put forth that private sector is lower paid.....
http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/budget-watchdog-finds-average-public-service-job-costs-dollar114k-2

there really is nothing more to say. :)

I know and spend time with many people who work for the government. I am always amazed at the inaccurate assumptions that continue to exit about public servents. I also think it is sad that in an effort to distract the public from the issue of poor government spending and money management that the government launched a social and media attack on its own public servants. Well, I can see it has worked. It was actually quite brilliant really. If you can turn the counrty against a group of people before you try and take stuff away from them you are them able to do it more easily and even with applause. Well done!

Any article written that states that public servents receive such and such is typically not accurate. Most people don't realize that there a many unions and many collective agreements, all are different.

Also, referring to the cushy 8 to 4 job is inaccurate. I know very few people this applies to. I wonder if people choose to forget the many shift workers in the department of defence, corrections, rcmp, to name a few. Also, on a sick leave related note, shift workers do suffer from more colds and other illnesses than non-shift workers. Also those jobs are arguably more stressful than most office type jobs which can lead to stress-related illness. And, being unjustly despised by the county you serve everyday, as well as regular, continuous comments about how lazy you are and how useless what you do is (upon finding out someone works for the government) by every random joe blow you meet in the grocery store can also add to that stess.

As far as the "high salaries" many would have to disagree with that as well. Some jobs have high salaries and some not so much. This is true with the private sector as well. The salaries are a little high in eastern provinces for example where average wages are low compared to the rest of the country. But in provinces like Alberta and BC the federal government salaries are average and even low by provincial standards. I also think that people forget that public employees pay taxes as well. They are not freeloaders. And because their jobs are typically stable they are less likely to use resources such as welfare, EI etc that they pay into.

As far as sick days are concerned, I find it rude when people come to work sick, actually. You are risking everyone's health you work with as well as that of their families. Stay home! It sucks that some of us may work at places that do not give us that option but I think that is something people in the private sector should fight for.

The important thing to remember is not all public servents have the same job, the same benefits, or same experiences. Please stop painting everyone with the same brush. Most of the comments on here are intelligent and have merit but many are shocking. Some people's black and white, extreme comments about public servents actually sound a little psycho. I worry you may actually need counselling, or at least yoga or meditation or something. Or perhaps a new job if you are that truly unhappy with yours.

I also would to to quickly address the teacher bashing that has also become commonplace.
Teachers make very little money in relation the amount of education they are expected and required to obtain and pay for to get a job. Most have a minimum of 6 years of univerity and many 8 or more. Other jobs that require this level of education and training make at least triple. Teachers also can not be accused of sitting on their asses when curriculums get more challenging and lengthy each year and resources continue to diminish. Also, meeting the needs of continually varied and challenging groups of student becomes more difficult with a lack of government, parent and public support. Most teachers put in about seventy hours of work a week. Their job does not end when school does. Although some people like to believe that they are done by three.

It is disheartening hearing people complain about the time off teachers get and how they are 'paid to lay on a beach." Teachers do not get paid for days they do not work. Their summer vacation is completely unpaid. The same goes for Christmas, easter, victoria day etc. Teachers are one of the only government employees that do not have one paid holiday.
Their salary is spread out over the year so as to have reagular income but they are not actullay paid for days they do not work. As for summer, after working 70 hours a week for 10 months, most teachers need the month of July to recuperate and spend part of August getting ready for the upcoming school year.

As for snow days (which people also love to complain about), some provinces have a longer school year than the rest to accomodate nasty weather. This means when there is a crazy year and the schools get closed 12 times the students may have only missed two days. And in years where there have only been 4 cancellations they may have gone six days longer than everyone else in the country. I get that it is a hassle to factor your child in on a day you thought they would be elsewhere but you should be happy that they are safe. And as far as being jealous of the teacher you think now has the day off because of weather, remember they were probably at their wits end and needed the break anyway and may still end up doing some work while they are at home because they havent found enough time on evenings and weekends to do it.

Most people in our counrty work hard, are good people, do things for others and go through life trying to be happy. Everyone has ups and downs, successes and setbacks, good jobs and bad jobs. Instead of attacking each other why not try supporting one another and being happy for one another. Start trying to build ourselves up instead of tearing others down.

I think this is all bull. I work in the private sector and get NO - yep 0 - sick days. I am a administrative assistant and If I am unable to go to work I lose a day of my holidays or I just don't get paid. I have worked in various offices for the past 20 years and have never had an employer give me sick days. If I need time off for an appointment or pick up my kids from school/daycare becasue they are sick, I have to make up the time or I don't get paid. I also don't get paid for attending funerals of my family members nor do I have any short term or long term disability.

I do not have a "bad job" nor do I work for "bad people"

Public sector workers need to realize most private sector workers do not get paid sick days.

Oh yes the age old rant of gov't workers who do nothing, get paid extremely well, are sick all the time blah blah blah.
Because I never see a construction worker standing around, oh or goodness look at that farmer they don't work all winter. Regardless of what position your in there is someone who is always going to complain about that nice green grass over there. Yes some gov't workers have it easy, but well you find that in almost every company out there.
As for sick time and the payouts I have enjoyed that in two positions previously and yep they were private sector. Personally I wish I had my aunts job at petro canada. 6 weeks vacation 15 personal days sick time and still have no clue what she does.

As a BC Provincial Government worker, I can speak for how our sick days work. We don't get a yearly 'quota' of sick days, but when we take a sick day we are only compensated at 75% wage for that day. The balance of the wage is made up by holiday time if the employee chooses to do so. The usage of sick days comes under scrutiny when applying for a position within the government, and an employee who is seen to abuse sick days is often passed over for promotion or transfer. Do Provincial Government emplyees abuse sick days? I don't think any more than other sectors. I also know that the Federal Gvernment can 'bank' their sick days. My ex-wife will go to work and gladly cough, sneeze and hack all over the office so that she doesn't take a sick day. Her motivation? she will go on 'stress leave' prior to retirement... the duration of the stress leave will be precicely the amount of time she has in her sick bank...

Secondly it is unfair to lump municipal, provincial, federal employees they vastly differ.

Worked for the Feds for 33 years. At 15 days of sick leave per year, that equaled 495 total days. When I retired, I still had approximately 270 "banked" days left. Did I get paid for these ? ABSOLUTELY NOT !!! Not to mention that I paid continuously into EI for 42 years and NEVER took any of this either... while some people actually make a living off EI. NEVER been on welfare either !! 50% of my property taxes go towards school taxes, although I have never had any children !! So... guess who's been paying thru the nose for all the "too numerous to mention" welfare and EI recipient types who also get subsidized housing while lounging on the couch all day eating bonbons and making babies. And ALL of these "contributing" members of society are the ones who abuse many social and government services (federal, provincial and municipal) and whom workers (both private and public sector) support. Maybe there should be some bashing articles on those tax-sucking deficients... but then again, that would be politically incorrect.

You'll need to forgive my mother-in-law for those numbers! She's a gov. worker, and a little cough one day and she's out the office for a week! (she's done just that last week!)
And, she takes a day off about every 2 weeks or so... And I'm not exagerating.

TO LEN:
Where do you work? I was not working for the government but for a private company that works really well in my province, and the sick days I haven't use at the end of a year were paid... I started working in october and by the end of the year I could have taken 3 sick days...but I had 140$ more in my pocket for not taking those days off... Am I lying? I don't think so, it has happened to me !!

ok, 1st, to Alan, we have the most over entitled government employees on the planet. and that sense of community you spoke of is a joke. most government employees are where they are, not because of an inne need to help their fellow man, but because a relative in "government service" got them the job.
but you speak like a government employee who is afraid of losing his huge salary, amazing benefits, golden parachute, and ridiculous job security. must be nice to know that no matter how poorly you do your job you can NEVER be fired.
if we put reins on government employees, from the top all the way down, and got rid of just the ones who aren't doing their jobs, and maybe half of the ones we don't actually need, we could bring our taxation rates down to an acceptable level.
then maybe people wouldn't be losing their homes because our government employees need to have us paying for our own prescription dispesary fees and theirs.
and that's just ONE of their perks.

and please,, let's not confuse healthcare workers with the rest of the government workers we speak of. that's where these ridiculous taxes we pay are supposed to go and don't because of all the other CRAP we are stuck paying for.

Why do people keep arguing that teachers don't get paid in the summer? That's simply a timing issue. If they got paid their full salary on January 1 would they have the right to complain they don't get paid 364 days of the year?

I only get paid every 2nd Friday, does that mean I'm volunteering for the other work days in the week?

"No federal government gets paid out for sick days that a lie whoever said they do are lying"

Technically they don't. My "X" had 2 years of sick time in the bag after 28 years of work. Before she retired she got a doctor to sign on the dotted line stating she was over stressed. Results.........2 years off with full pay at Canada's expense. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her. She, in fact, laughed about it. The Canadian Government is full of them. No wonder our taxes are high and the country's productivity stinks.

I work for the government - I do NOT get paid out for sick days not taken nor are they banked for later use. I get 5 casual sick days per year - that's it. Anymore than that I am docked and they are very diligent about doing so. I think this is completely fair.

In response to CJ above, I do have EDO's - I work extra time every day to get every 2nd Friday off. I have earned this and government is not alone in offering this benefit to its staff.

I'm frankly sick and tired of people slamming goverment employees. I've seen more people slack off at work in private industry than I have in my time in goverment. Why? Because its regulated and closely monitored.

You want to bitch about unfairness? Let's talk about how employees with family/kids get more time off than people without kids. Now that is a crock of shit, IMHO.

Is that your argument? ..well gov't people pay taxes too! Of course they do but where does their income come from? TAXPAYERS! do you not understand that? The gov't sector is not productive it produces no products, it only drains the economy of resources via taxation of the private sector. The gov't has no money or resources, it can only take money for the productive sector(private industry) and redistrubute.

Everyone in the former soviet union had a gov't job and money but they couldn't buy anything...why? because they didn't produce enough. We don't need jobs, we need the production that comes from jobs. Anyone can stand on their feet for 8hours and then go home.

Another thing, capitalism doesn't work without capital, capital comes from saving, saving are scarce. The brainfart notion that ...oh well gov't people spend money in the economy...thats a good thing'...no it isn't. The last thing we need are Canadians who hold the #1 spot for personal debt levels in the so called free world spending more borrowed money. We don't need anymore spending, we need to save money, we need to produce more products not get fatter while everyone works or eats at the food court.

Merry xmas though...I'm all fired up but after this egg nog(with rum) I'll be mellow....

To Allen/reality - with that circular arguement, you can say then where does the private sector get their salaries? From people who buy their services, some of which are government workers, who get paid by taxpayers, some of whom are private sector workers - so you end up paying your own salary too! Thats what an economy is - circulation of money and goods. We all pay each others salaries - except for those that dont work, and we pay for them too. That arguement about who pays whose salary is ridiculous.If government workers (at all levels) werent paid, then they wouldnt spend money, then they wouldnt be spending in the private sector, then businesses would fail, then we would all be on welfare.

20% of people work for the govenment? As a private sector worker 20% of my salary comes from government employees. I can accept that. But 100% of a government employees salary comes from me (the taxpayer). That's a big difference

So I should pay high taxes to the government in order for gov employees to spend money in the economy? I've got a better solution. How about we trim the government excess of employees, and lower taxes so that I can purchase more goods and services and invest my money which will grow the economy. It sure beats the forced charitable contributions I have to make to an ineffecient government

Blah, Blah, Blah... NO government workers = NO firemen who are actually municipal "government" workers. NO border service or correctional services guards so criminals and illegals can run rampant in our country. NO municipal, provincial or federal police officers or judges so everyone can scream boo-hoo when their home gets ransacked, their kids or wives get molested or their neighbor takes a shot at them. NO transportation safety investigators, NO food or drug safety inspectors. NO controls over industry so they can all pay their private sector workers $2. an hour to work in sweatshops. NO government labour controls so workplace safety in the private sector becomes irrelevant. The list goes on and on and on. And the next time some private sector company or industry screws you... good luck crying to the company president, CEOs or other executives... whose Million $$$ yearly bonuses are paid off your backs. Wow... guess you didn't know you ALSO get the rear-end treatment from your own PRIVATE sector employer did ya ? Unless you yourself are high enough up the corporate food chain.

You are right about everyone paying everyone else's salaries. However, public sector workers want more than the rest of us. Now, where does the extra money come from?