The Majority Of Companies Negotiated This Out Of Their Contracts

Is there and chance the city will do so? Unlikely. Because of the relationship between the mayor and the unions this matter will probably not even come up on the table.

City sick day abuse makes us silly

SUN MEDIA

We wish Toronto Auditor General Jeff Griffiths had been more blunt in his report into absenteeism at City Hall and just said the obvious.

That is, there's reason to suspect an undetermined number of city employees are abusing sick time and some unionized workers are defrauding taxpayers.

How? By drawing down their sick days as they near retirement when they're not sick.

This in order to get as much undeserved time off as possible in addition to 130 days of extra pay as a retirement bonus.

What Griffiths did report is bad enough.

We learn that problems with management oversight of employee absenteeism have been ongoing since at least 2001 and weren't corrected despite a warning in 2004.

That means workers often aren't even asked by management to produce basic evidence of a genuine prolonged illness, such as a doctor's certificate.

Thus, Griffiths is concerned "culpable" and "blameworthy" absenteeism may be going on undetected, putting yet another financial strain on city coffers -- and thus property taxpayers -- in tough economic times.

Griffiths' report appears to confirm complaints to the city's fraud and waste hotline that some workers -- who get 18 sick days a year in addition to short and long-term disability -- are abusing the system.

The biggest concern is that under their collective agreement, unionized workers are entitled to collect up to 130 days of extra pay upon retirement if they have 260 days or more of banked, unused sick time.

What appears to be happening is workers who have more than 260 days are drawing them down as they approach retirement by taking days off when they aren't sick, until they have the minimum 260 days left in order to cash in the maximum retirement perk of 130 days of extra pay.

Griffiths recommends improved management oversight, but since the problem has been going on for years we're not sure what good more recommendations will do.

If what Griffiths suspects is going on is going on, then whether it's criminal fraud -- which is for the courts to decide -- it is fraud in the practical sense that property taxpayers are being defrauded because people are being paid for days they report in sick, when they're not sick.

And we're not talking about chump change.

Last year Toronto paid out $21.4 million in sick days.

The retirement bonus perk has already been taken away from management and non-unionized city employees, but the city's unions, unsurprisingly, won't give it up without a fight.

Which means the city needs to find a way to restore credibility to the sick leave system fast.

This is just the kind of nonsense that convinces property taxpayers that city workers are lazy and dishonest, which most aren't.

And that city council is chronically careless with their tax dollars, which it is.