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Truscott said the study comes as many of the collective agreements in Metro Vancouver are under negotiation, and he hopes it gives labour negotiators impetus to redraw sick pay provisions.

“(Banking sick days) is simply a way for some municipal employees to achieve more time off without being ill. Obviously it makes sense for governments to have a safety net in place for those times when employees fall ill in the short term, but it can be accomplished in a lot simpler, easier and fairer manner by setting up short-term disability plans,” he said.

In April the CFIB issued a report in which it examinedthe sick pay provisions of the federal and provincial governments, estimating that as of 2014 public sector employees had banked 15 million sick days with a collective taxpayer liability of $3.8 billion.

But public sector sick pay plans may be a better deal than the CFIB thinks, according to Mark Thompson, a professor emeritus of the University of B.C.’s Sauder School of Business.

“The notion of banking sick days is that if you bank them, then you won’t abuse them. There is always a risk with sick days when people pile them up, that they will take a stress day or there is snow on the mountains that they book off,” he said. “If they know that some day they know they will need those days, the theory is that won’t do that.”

Thompson said the CFIB has a vested interest in arguing public sector programs should be redrawn.

“The CFIB hasn’t provided a scintilla of evidence that this is wrong. They’ve just said that this is more generous than our members. Everybody knows that,” he said. “Just saying that it is more generous than we have and that you should take away a benefit they’ve negotiated is just an ideological argument. It isn’t a basis for public policy.”