Public sector workers take more sick days on average than their private sector counterparts, according to a new report by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
Private sector workers take 6.4 days off sick, on average; public sector workers take 10.6 – about 65 per cent more.
The gap has grown, says report’s author Philip Cross: In 1987, he found, the average number of sick days was 7.2 days for public-sector workers and 6.1 days for private-sector workers.
“Public sector use of sick leave has increased over time,” said Cross said.
He attributes the disparity to employment jitters amid a shaky economy: Everyone tends to take more sick days when the economy’s doing well; when it isn’t private sector workers tend to worry about their jobs and cut back, while public sector workers tend not to.
“It’s hard to believe that there are certain microbes out there that are targeting only civil servants, except teachers, and are avoiding the private-sector workers,” he said.
But the disparity could be partly because the public sector employs proportionally more women and older employees, said Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives economist David Macdonald.
“Women disproportionally take sick leave, in large part to care for family members, either sick children or sick parents,” he said.
“With a larger concentration in the public sector you end up with more sick leave. But that’s just a reflection of more women in the public sector, not some kind of abuse of the sick leave system.”
He points to two previous studies on the subject, by the Parliamentary Budget Officer and Statistics Canada, both of which found that when controlling for age, gender and union representation, public sector workers only take about one more day off, on average, than private sector workers.
Union representation is a major factor, according to Statistics Canada. Unionized workers took about five days more leave in 2012, on average, than non-unionized workers – in both the public and private sectors. The Statistics Canada report suggests this is because unionized workers are more likely to have a set number of sick days per year.
“No kidding unions are a big part of this,” Cross said.
“Ask any senior manager in government why they don’t try to get employees to use sick leave responsibly, and they’ll say, ‘I’ll have a union steward in my office and that will just waste my time so I don’t bother.’
After a 36 year career at Statistics Canada, Cross thinks the problem is institutional, and that some public servants abuse the sick leave system.
“There was one employee, he put up a sign in his office saying, ‘I’m going to be sick every Friday for the rest of the year.’ He was boasting about it. This is the kind of taunting that goes on in the civil service,” Cross said.
Managers were unhappy, but had little incentive to do much about it, he said.
Managers also take less time off than lower-ranking clerks, he found in his study.
“There is, I think, very obviously a behavioural and motivational aspect to this. This isn’t about germs. It’s about motivation, about how serious you are about working.”
Fixing the sick leave system by aligning public servants’ benefits more closely to the public sector could save the government money, he thinks. The previous Conservative government thought so, too, estimating a savings of $900 million if they reduced the number of sick days and introduced a short-term disability plan.
During this year’s federal election campaign the Liberals told public servants that they wouldn’t force sick leave changes.
In a statement Friday the Liberal government said it can’t comment on the study out of respect for the collective bargaining process but wants to come to a “mutual agreement” with unions to modernize sick leave.
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