Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Office released a report on government employee sick leave on Thursday (February 6) and found employee sick leave numbers were “to some extent inflated” by the way the minister responsible for them calculated sick leave.
The budget office says public servants take an average of 11.5 paid sick days a year, compared with 18 days reported by Treasury Board President Tony Clement.
It also found that sick leave in the public sector did not differ much from that of the private sector.
Last year, Clement had suggested that sick leave in the federal service was “well beyond not only private sector norms but other public-sector norms”.
The mandate of the Parliamentary Budget Officer “is to provide independent analysis to Parliament on the state of the nation’s finances, the government’s estimates and trends in the Canadian economy.”
More information:
Parliamentary Budget Office – Fiscal Analysis of Sick Leave in the Federal Public Service (pdf) – here
CBC News – Public servant sick days not as high as Tony Clement said – here
Toronto Star – Conservatives’ sick leave claims ‘inflated’, budget officer says – here
Globe and Mail (June 2013) – Government to target public service’s sick days in next round of bargaining – here
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