Halifax city employees taking more sick days than private sector workers: report

HALIFAX – A report from the municipal auditor general shows Halifax Regional Municipality employees are taking more sick days than employees in the private sector.

The report, which was released Wednesday, says that in 2011, while private sector employees took an average of 8.2 days per year of sick leave nationally, city employees took an average of 10.5 days.

It also singled out employees in two departments — Metro Transit and public works — who took more sick time than the rest.

The report states the remaining departments are comparable, and if transit and public works employees were excluded, the city would be near the private industry average.

The news didn’t come as a surprise to the city’s chief administrative officer, Richard Butts.

He said he has been reporting the numbers to the city and has already made efforts to lower the number of sick days taken by the two departments.

“We want to make sure that our employees don’t feel entitled to these benefits, but that they are a protection to the families against adverse impact of illness and sickness,” Butts said.

Municipal Auditor General Larry Munroe said the city needs to understand the reasons behind the high numbers in the two departments before it can take action to change them.

He said if “we understand the core of the it, we, as management, can start to change it.”

The report also looked into other reasons for why the numbers would be so high, including unions, age, and gender.

Statistics Canada has previously reported that the average sick days taken by municipal employees in Canada is lower than the averages for provincial and federal employees.