Following repeated requests from The Public Record, the City of Hamilton released a breakdown of it’s “19% absenteeism” statistic:

Long-Term Disability: 5.5%;

Short-Term Disability: 7.3%;

WSIB: 2.4%; and

Other: 3.8% (includes Maternity Leave, Paternity Leave, Emergency Leave, Leave w/o Pay).

I wrote yesterday about how the City was using the “absenteeism” label in a manner that made it appear that 19% of drivers were just not showing up to work. In fact, as we see from the breakdown above, drivers are not engaged in any work action, are not randomly calling in sick, and that the HSR is dealing with a significant number of operators on short-term disability.