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The aim of the “disability management initiative” is to get sick and injured workers back to work faster and to tackle a more than $5-billion liability in banked sick days.

On any given day, 19,000 public servants are booked off on some kind of sick leave. On average, federal employees were absent 12.5 days last year — twice the rate of employees in the private sector. In the core public service, workers are off an average of 18 days, when paid and unpaid sick leave, workers’ compensation and disability are taken into account.

The Conservatives are banking on huge savings and many expect the government will develop a short-term disability plan to replace banked sick leave and create a disability case management system that puts more emphasis on prevention, rehabilitation and wellness to get the ill and injured back to work faster.



Public servants get 15 days of sick leave a year, which they can accumulate and carry over year to year. Sick employees must exhaust their accumulated sick leave before they qualify for disability, which covers 70 per cent of salary. The plan has a 13-week waiting period so anyone with less that 13 weeks of accumulated sick leave is off work without pay other than employment insurance sick benefits.

It’s expected the government will want a sick leave model similar to the one at Canada Post, which became a strike issue when introduced. Canada Post employees get seven days of personal leave, and once those are exhausted they have to go on short-term disability and are entitled to 70 per cent of salary. They cannot accumulate or roll over more than five unused days.