June 10, 2013
Good afternoon.
Two weeks ago I stood in this foyer and announced that our Government is turning the page and beginning a new chapter in the future of the public service.
This new chapter is focussed on ensuring Canadians receive the best value for their tax dollars.
The Government spends $43-billion a year on public sector pay and benefits. It's our most significant expenditure and our most valuable asset.
It is therefore incumbent upon us to ensure that we are employing the public service to its fullest potential.
That means reforming the public service, modernizing and encouraging greater productivity.
This ambitious initiative took an important step forward two weeks ago when I announced our Government was introducing a mandatory new system for tracking employee performance.
And today I am here to take our modernizing efforts to a whole new level. In keeping with our Government's Economic Action Plan 2013 commitment, I am proud to announce our intentions to bring the Government's disability management system into a whole new century: the 21st century.
Similar to performance management, how we deal with disability management has a significant impact on worker productivity and our ability to deliver effective and affordable services to Canadians.
And not unlike performance management, our efforts to properly track and support ill and injured employees are ineffective and fragmented.
Follow-up is poor. And the system, which dates back to 1970, is woefully ill-equipped to provide effective support to a modern workforce.
The results are painfully obvious and costly to both employees and to the Canadian taxpayers who are footing the bill.
Number one, the public service suffers from exceedingly high levels of absenteeism compared to the private sector. The average per worker uses 18.2 days of paid and unpaid sick leave a year.
Let me say that again. 18.2 days a year. That is two-and-a-half times the private sector rate of 6.7 days.
That is simply unsustainable for any employer that intends to run a modern, high-performing and effective workforce.
Number two, employees are not receiving the kind of support they need to help them through their illness and get them back work in a timely way.
Which leads me to me announcement today, which is twofold.
First, I am announcing our Government's intention to introduce, for the first time, a short-term disability program to support employees dealing with short-term illness.
The federal government is one of the few large employers in Canada that does not provide support for short-term illnesses. In contrast, some 87% of Canadian employers do.
Currently, employees must rely on banked sick days. It's a terribly inefficient and haphazard way of managing our human resources. You don't have the necessary case management and rehabilitation support that ensures that employees have a system that supports them when they need it most.
It's also unfair to employees. If you are stricken with a sudden illness and you need an operation that will force you to be off work for three or four months, but you don't have enough sick days, you are simply out of luck.
And there are a lot of people who would be out of luck.
Currently 11% of public servants do not have any banked sick days at all. And nearly 60% don't have enough sick days to cover them until the 13-week mark, when long-term disability insurance kicks in.
As a result, the system is unfair. It discriminates against newer and younger employees, while disproportionately benefiting those who have been with the government for years.
So our Government's intention is to introduce short-term disability support and we have engaged with union stakeholders to bring this about. We look forward to working with them to establish a short-term disability program that is effective, efficient and fair to all employees.
Secondly, and in addition to this, we have engaged with union stakeholders to revamp our long-term disability management system. This system, which kicks in after 13-weeks of illness, has remained virtually unchanged, as I mentioned, since it was first introduced 40 years ago.
Archaic and outdated, the long-term plan is like a well-preserved museum exhibit gathering dust under glass. It is the dinosaur of disability management.
Forty years ago jobs were different, more industrial in nature. And illness was thought of differently. Mental illness – stress, anxiety, depression – were not admitted to or acknowledged. Cancer was much less treatable than it is today.
The workplace has changed dramatically in the past 40 years, but the disability management system has not.
Employees are getting lost or forgotten in the system. There's little effective case management, which means we're not doing our jobs in terms of ensuring our people have the support they need when they need it most.
Our Government believes this needs to change.
It's time to fix an inefficient system so that Canadian taxpayers are receiving the best value for their dollars and employees have a system that supports them.
We will work with stakeholders to overhaul this fragmented system and replace it with a modern one that seamlessly integrates short and long-term coverage – a system that ensures robust case management and a timely return to work.
We need a 21st century disability management system for a 21st century workforce.
Canadians expect and deserve a modern, high-performing and affordable public service.
This is an important step to ensuring Canadians are receiving the public service they deserve.
Thank you
