Federal public servants were less likely to call the sick to work during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the new government data.
The figures shared by the Secretariat of the Treasury Board of Canada indicate that in 2020-21, when the pandemic had the majority of the employees of the office who worked remotely, the average number of days of disease for the public service was 5.9.
That number grew to 8.1 in 2021-22, 8.8 in 2022-23 and 9.2 in 2023-24.
The majority of office workers stayed at home to work during the pandemic for much of 2020 and 2021 (while some employees of the federal office returned to work in person in 2022, it was only in the first months of 2023 that all public servants were gradually ordered to the office for at least two or three days a week.
Before the pandemic, the data show that public servants took an average of 9.6 days of illness in 2019-20, 9.8 days in 2018-19 and 10.4 days in 2017-18.
Dr. Alykhan Abdulla, family doctor and director of the Board of the Faculty of Family Physicians of Canada, said that reduced exposure is one of the main drivers of reduced disease days.
Employees could also have worked from home if they were sick during the pandemic, he said, although perhaps less productively.
Abdulla said that disease days could be increasing again due to the increase of people in the exposure or their lack of will to return to the post-pandemic office.
He also said that he hopes the number will increase beyond pre-pandemic rates due to factors such as delayed medical care, more exhibitions, mental health problems and financial struggles.
The Treasury Board says that the average use of disease days includes people who did not take a disease license and people who used a disease license addressed before accessing the long -term benefits of disability.
Departments, agencies that use the greatest number of days of disease
Between 2017-18 and 2023-24, the employees of the Canada Border Services Agency and the Canada Correctional Service were consistently between the federal departments and agencies that took the most days of illness.
A survey of federal public servants published earlier this year suggested that the employees of these organizations were also less likely to recommend their office as a great place to work.
The Canada Government website says that full -time employees generally gain illness license at a rate of just over nine hours each month.
He says that employees are given a disease license with salary when they cannot fulfill their duties “due to disease or injury, provided that your employer is satisfied with your condition and you have the necessary credits for illness license.”
Catherine Connelly, a professor and president of Commercial Research in the Department of Human Resources and Management of the McMaster University in Hamilton, said that people who work from home can find less germs because they do not travel and are not close to their co -workers.
Connelly said there is also the possibility that people work from home even when they are only a little sick.
“Maybe you can still work, not take a day of illness, but also rest extra because you are not traveling,” he said. “Due to that additional break, maybe not get sick, so sick that you have to take a free time.”
