• Ontario provincial government employees took an average of 10.5 sick days in 2012
• Non-government employees take an average of 5.8 sick days per year
• The department with the highest average number of sick days is Correctional Services, taking 15.6 sick days

TORONTO, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on all provincial government agencies to aggressively reduce the amount of sick time taken by government employees and crack down on sick day abuse.

New data from the Ontario Public Service (OPS) and StatsCan, exclusively obtained by the CTF, show that the average Ontario government employee took 10.5 sick days off in 2012, compared to 5.8 days taken by their non-government counterparts.

“We’ve always suspected that government is bad for your health, and these stats confirm it: working for government must make people sick,” said Candice Malcolm, the CTF’s Ontario Director. “Either the government paycheque should come with a Health Canada warning or the taxpayers are being bamboozled with phony sick days.”

Correctional Services employees had the highest average, with 15.6 sick days in 2012. Community and Social Services employees took 14 sick days, and Health and Long Term Care took 12.3.

“In the real world, sick days are taken when you’re actually sick,” continued Malcolm. “In government, it’s been a long-standing joke that some people seem to ‘get sick’ to pad their vacation or extend a long-weekend.”

Not every provincial department experiences this sick day epidemic.  Employees with the PanAm Games Secretariat, Cabinet Office, and the Office of Francophone Affairs all booked less sick days on average than non-government workers, with 3.3, 4.9, and 5.1, respectively.

“These offices should be a model for all government departments in Ontario,” said Malcolm.

“Overall, Ontario government workers take 81 per cent more sick days than non-government workers; that’s enough to make any taxpayer feel sick,” concluded Malcolm.

· For an op/ed by Candice Malcolm on the topic, click here.

· For the CTF’s request to the Ontario Government on total sick days by department, click here.

· For the provincial breakdown of StatsCan’s sick day numbers, click here.

· For the CTF’s national news release on federal government sick days, click here.