No extra costs for federal civil service sick leave, budget watchdog says

[shockedcanadian]

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/07/16/no_extra_costs_for_federal_civil_service_sick_leave_budget_watchdog_says.html


I'm guessing this guy has never run his own business. Here is the crux of his argument:

“Since most departments do not call in replacements when an employee takes a sick day, there are no incremental costs,” said the report released Wednesday.



As far as I am concerned they can't have it both ways, there is no business in Canada that would suggest that having a full-time employee away from work doesn't come with a cost. When someone doesn't come to work their "production" is missed; or, that department is overstaffed and thus that person doesn't need to be employed there at all, we can't have it both ways.

[ret5hd]

1. Or the department is staffed at a level that intelligently takes into account...

reasonable expectations of sick time, emergency leave, etc.

But I guess you could be one of those people that demand that "Hey, you're working on my dime! If you're not putting out 100% over 100% of the time, you're a SLACKER and deserve to be FIRED!"

But then you would be one of those people that believes the best run private companies are operating at or very near 100% capacity, when the truth is more like 80% - 90%.

[shockedcanadian]

2. No, if you are sick you are sick

It's the banking of sick days that I find offensive. Something that conveniently wasn't addressed by the PBO.

Further along in the report:
The PBO report used figures spanning three fiscal years, from 2009-2010 to 2011-2012. Over that period, sick leave in seven departments were steadily increasing, while only two – Health Canada and Statistics Canada – saw paid sick leave steadily decrease.


Everyone gets sick from time to time, that is unavoidable, it is abuses that are concerning to everyone, and so it should be. In 2013 there was a report put out by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation that suggested that the average Ontario government employee took 10.5 sick days in the calendar year of 2012; According to Statistics Canada, private sector employees took only 5.8 sick days.

Such a large discrepancy deserves an explanation.

[ret5hd]

3. Oh, I see. It is only paid sick time you are offended by.

[arikara]

4. Maybe because private sector doesn't usually offer good sick benefits

people tend to go to work when they are sick if they don't get paid for taking the day off. The downside of that is that they spread their germs around to their co-workers and customers, and they aren't able to give 100% to the job.

Government historically had good sick benefits. People tend to take time off when they're sick if they get paid. They also take the occasional "mental health" day when they can get away with it.

Government is now renegotiating sick benefits. For example, the post office now gets 7 days a year which can be taken for any reason. If you are sick for more than a week you go to short term which pays I think 60%, or could be a bit more. But then you are dealing with an insurance company who is hounding you to go back to work.

I really don't know what the answer is. I do think people should be paid to stay home when they're sick, I kind of resent being coughed and sneezed over.

[laundry_queen]

5. You hit the nail on the head

Private sector people drag themselves into work sick because they don't have the same benefits! Hence the discrepancy.

I'm going to use my mom's company as an example. It's an employee owned company that offers stellar benefits. They get plenty of sick days.

HOWEVER, there is a huge caveat. If you miss any more than 2 days in a row by using sick days, you forfeit a certain percentage of your quarterly profit sharing.

So, it's really shocking (NOT) that people drag themselves into work so they don't get docked pay. When H1N1 went around, the whole office got sick because people would take the first 2 days and then try to make it in for half a day before they could take some more time off.

Totally defeats the purpose of having sick days. Sometimes you only need one day. Sometimes you need a whole week. My brother works for the same company and had day surgery, and he got around the 2 days of sick days thing by sticking a vacation day in between the 2 days (he took a whole week - 2 sick days, 1 vacation day, 2 sick days). However, he shouldn't have to do that.

This company is not alone in the private sector when it comes to stupid (or shitty) sick day policies. Also, many private companies don't have sick day policies if you are paid hourly. If you get sick, you don't get paid. So, people drag themselves in. Everyone should have the same amount of sick days as in gov't - with no strings attached on how you use them. period.