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But even accounting for this, the rate of approved claims per 1,000 women is still 80 to 90 per cent higher than the rate per 1,000 men for the period between 2006 and 2013.

In 2013, the rate of approved claims per thousand for women was 92 per cent higher than for men.

Experts have scratched their heads for years over what’s behind the gender imbalance, but the issue doesn’t appear to be among the reasons the government is overhauling the way sick leave and disability are managed in the public service. Its overhaul is the first major change in nearly 45 years.

Shannon Bittman, vice-president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service, said unions hoped the issue would be addressed when Treasury Board launched its $5.6-million disability management initiative several years ago in a bid to get a handle on absenteeism and improve workplace health.

The main reform from that initiative is the government’s current offer at the bargaining table to scrap sick leave and replace it with a short-term disability plan, a move unions say won’t fix the problem.

“If they are truly interested in the health of their employees and ensuring they have a healthy workplace, then I find it difficult to comprehend why they are not trying to get to the root cause of why this happening,” Bittman said. “Unless we identify the causes, we are blindly going for solutions.”

This week, the giant Public Service Alliance of Canada upped the ante at contract negotiations with a “mental health” proposal aimed at getting at those root causes.