Imagine you’re a government worker and you’re allowed to take, say, 15 sick days a year. Should you get to cash out the days you don’t use?

Most people would probably say “no.” After all, sick time is for, well, when you’re sick.

Yet years ago the City of Winnipeg gifted most of its employees the expensive perk of being able to be paid for sick days they didn’t use. It was seen as an incentive to show up for work rather than fake sick to get a paid day off. However, most city employees lost that perk decades ago.

That is, except for firefighters.

Winnipeg firefighters can still store up sick days throughout their career and then cash them in just before they retire; based on a formula in their agreement.

The payouts are anything but cheap for taxpayers. Last year the city paid out over $2.4 million for unused sick days. City data obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a donation-based taxpayers’ watchdog group, found over $15 million has been paid out in unused sicktime over the last nine years.

Worse yet, the city expects to pay out over $36 million in the future; a figure that has exploded since it was ‘only’ a $22 million liability in 2004.

Add the $15 million that’s been paid out to the $36 million owing in the future and you’ve got $51 million that could have been put towards fixing our roads instead of paying out sick days that never occurred.

Back in 2009, the last time the Canadian Taxpayers Federation brought up the idea of phasing out this benefit, this author received a death threat from a disturbing character that identified himself as a “city worker” – threatening to – burn down his home for questioning the golden perk.

Hopefully this time even that individual can see just how pricey this benefit has become.

Make no mistake, the city needs to offer a good salary and benefits package for firefighters or it won’t attract very good candidates. There are lots of hardworking firefighters out there that deserve good pay for the work they do.

But things are already pretty good for firefighters. They start off with a salary of $46,307 that increases to $77,179 in just five years (67 per cent increase.) On top of that they benefit from a very generous pension – far greater than the average taxpayer enjoys. And then there’s the expensive overtime pay they can rack up, the 15 sick days a year they’re entitled to right now and immense job security.

To address the problem, the city should take a very reasonable approach. Allow all banked sick days to be kept, but end the practice going forward. That way, no firefighter on the verge of retirement would suddenly have the rug pulled out from under them.

Second, the city should cut back on the number of sick days it offers firefighters going forward. Clearly, by storing up tons of unused sicktime, firefighters have proven they don’t need as much time as the city is offering.

It’s time to ask your councillor if they’re willing to put out this costly fire.

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