Canadian Labour Reporter

CANADIAN LABOUR REPORTER 7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 Continued from page 1 Kai Pfaffenbach (Reuters) "You have to put some of the responsibility where the knowledge is located," Johns said. "People can be absent for a lot of reasons and it requires a local intelligence in order to un- derstand how to manage any given case. Usually, outsourcing implies some degree of removal from where the knowledge is located. Work behavior is usually managed best by managers." While he questioned the decision to hand over management to a third party, Johns said the government's move to eliminate accumulated sick days was an obvious one. "These bankable sick days are designed to keep absence low. They're designed to discourage people from taking sick days. Clearly, this isn't working," Johns said, citing the ongoing debate between the government and unions regarding public servants' sick leave statistics. While bankable sick days have been a point of contention, Johns is not convinced they have any meaningful impact on day-to-day attendance management. Benson said the govern- ment is misleading Canadians about the nature of public ser- vants' accumulated leave in order to push forward the proposed changes. "This government says that it's a liability and it's billions of dollars," she said of the accumulated leave. "They're mislead- ing Canadians, quite frankly. Certainly, we bank our sick leave. If we use it, there's a pay out of it. If we don't use it, we just lose it." Eliminating accumulated sick leave and replacing it with a short-term disability plan would only encourage employees to come in to work when they are ill, Benson said. "If we use it, then it becomes a liability. If we don't use it, it just sits there on the books. Mr. Clement is skewing the figures to his own advantage," she said. "Other Canadians have sick leave, both in the private sector and in other public sectors like provincial and municipal governments." James said the proposed move to a short-term disability leave is not an effort to take away from public sector employees, but rather an attempt to provide them with benefits comparable to Canadians across the country. "The federal government is one of the few large employers in Canada that does not provide support for short-term illnesses," James said. "Approximately 87 per cent of Canadian employers do. A new sick leave and disability management system would offer consistent coverage to all federal public servants, regard- less of an employee's tenure, medical history or age." The proposed changes will be discussed throughout 2014 as part of negotiations with 17 public sector unions. The ongoing discussions will mean Benson — and the public — are about to get another big dose of the debate surrounding sick leave in the public sector. Treasury Board minister Tony Clement recently proposed changes to the government's current sick leave management system that would eliminate accumulated sick days and introduce STD. The Public Service Alliance of Canada union said the plan is hazardous to workers' health. Proposed plan eliminates banked sick days we already have in the workplace. To now know you don't have sick leave in the bank, that you won't get 100 per cent wage replacement… that's not going to improve your mental health, that's actually going to cause you more anxiety than the system we have now." Benson said alternative improvements could be introduced to the current sick leave system to better serve young and new employees. She expressed concern that a short-term disability leave would lead to the contracting out of the management of employees' sick leave. James, however, pointed out third parties currently provide public servants long-term disability benefits to the employees' satisfaction. "The government is considering options for a similar third- party delivery model for a new short-term disability plan," she said. "Disability benefit service providers have the experience and expertise to provide active case management in conjunc- tion with managers. This would ensure consistent services for all employees." Gary Johns — a professor in the department of management at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University in Montreal and an expert in absenteeism — called the contract- ing out of something as complex as sick leave "worrisome."

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