Unions Brace for Battle Over Sick Days

A public sector union representing 55,000 workers has issued a scathing message to its members slamming the federal budget, chiefly its assertion that big bucks would be saved by revamping the federal employees' sick day system.

On Tuesday, the Tories released their first balanced budget since 2007, complete with a $1.4 billion surplus, which critics say came in part from shrinking the contingency fund and claiming $900 million would be saved on the sick day changes.

However, Debi Daviau, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, called the budget a "manipulative PR exercise" in a message sent out to members Wednesday, which include government scientists.

Among the union's complaints are funding cut backs to the public sector and insufficient funding to catch tax cheats.

"Only a government desperate to be re-elected would claim the current budget is balanced," Daviau said in the statement. "Only a government desperate to be re-elected would claim it is in the public interest. And only a government that no longer has the interests of its 'hard working' employees at heart would claim that it does."

The sick day system has been a major issue for two years between the government and public sector unions, as they work towards new contracts.

Most federal public employees get about 15 sick days per year, but the government wants to "modernize" the bankable sick day system, which they say will create the $900 million. The government wants to replace the current sick-leave benefits plan with a short-term disability plan. The government plan would limit to six the number of paid sick days that federal employees can claim.

However, unions say the changes would mean that after using up fewer sick days an employee would have to go on disability and lose income while waiting a week for it to kick in.

"The budget also suggests that the goal should be to arrive at a fair solution," Daviau said. "Based on its record, there is nothing to suggest that any of these [proposals] meet the Harper government's definition of "reasonable" and "fair."

Creative Accounting

Meanwhile, Emmanuelle Tremblay, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, said the $900 million figure cited by the Conservatives doesn't technically exist.

"The government is doing extremely creative accounting, this is monopoly money, this is not real money," Tremblay, whose union represents 12,500 people, said. "This whole notion of the costs associated with banked sick days is artificial."

She said the purpose of sick days is that a person still collects a salary when sick. The work is simply delayed. The $900 million, she said, represents a liability on paper that must be represented in the unlikely event everyone takes all their sick days at once.

Tremblay added, unlike some provincial public service sectors, federal employees can't get money in lieu of their sick days at the end of their careers.

"When they actually say we will be saving $900 million they are actually flat lying," she said.

Tremblay also pointed out the money is still part of ongoing negotiations, so including it in the budget is premature. She said the government hasn't done a cost-benefit analysis of the plan.

But Treasury Board president Tony Clement told reporters outside the Tory caucus meeting Wednesday that as far as he's concerned the money is in the bank even though contract negotiations with unions are still ongoing.

"The budget is the budget. The savings are the savings," Clement said. "The budget speech recognizes that I'm still at the table. I have been at the table dozens and dozens of meetings with the public sector unions on these issues."

Tremblay said over the years public sector unions have backed off asking for wage increases that correspond to inflation, but only if they get something in return for that concession.

She said unless the government thinks of a more fair solution to the sick leave model her union will not concede the current system.