Federal public servants used significantly more sick days during the same month they were required to return to the office three days per week, according to newly released data from the Treasury Board.
Sharp Increase in Sick Leave
The core public administration recorded 238,668 sick days in September 2024, representing a substantial increase from the 209,395 sick days taken during the same period in 2023. This marks a nearly 14 percent jump in absenteeism, occurring despite the core public administration growing by only about 4 percent during the same timeframe.
The trend becomes even more pronounced when examining longer-term data. During September 2022, public servants took 168,245 sick days, while in September 2021, the number stood at 157,657. The lowest point occurred in September 2020 during the pandemic's early months, with only 129,570 sick days recorded.
Policy Changes and Timeline
The significant increase coincided with the implementation of the Treasury Board's new remote work policy in September 2024. The policy required employees in the core administration to work from the office three days per week, while executives faced an even stricter mandate of four days in-office.
This represented an escalation from previous hybrid arrangements. In March 2023, the Treasury Board had initially implemented a hybrid model requiring employees to work on-site at least two days per week, which was subsequently updated to the current three-day requirement.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, most public servants had been working from home full-time when their jobs permitted it, resulting in historically low sick day usage.
Union Response and Ongoing Challenges
The return-to-office directive sparked immediate backlash from public sector unions and employees. Multiple rallies were organized and a court challenge was launched in response to the policy. The legal challenge has been temporarily paused while a grievance works its way through the federal labour board.
Rola Salem, spokesperson for the Treasury Board, provided context for the numbers in a statement. "The use of sick leave decreased during the pandemic," Salem noted. "It has increased since then but remains proportional to the population of the Core Public Administration since 2018. The average number of sick days per employee remains the same at around 2%."
However, the average number of sick days taken by the core public service has shown a steady increase in recent years. In 2020-21, when most public servants worked from home full-time, the average was 5.9 sick days per employee. This number grew to 8.1 in 2021-22, 8.8 in 2022-23, and reached 9.2 in 2023-24.
The Ottawa Citizen first requested the total number of sick days taken during September 2024 in October of that year, but the Treasury Board took more than a year to provide the information.
