Sick days appear linked to Roughriders, storms, holidays, CTF says

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is ringing alarm bells about the number of sick days taken in the public sector — suggesting that some absenteeism could be linked to weekends and Saskatchewan Roughrider events.

The lobby group released a report Thursday looking at the most popular days provincial employees called in sick in 2013 and 2014.

It turns out, Mondays represented 11 out of the top 25 sick days.

The day the most people called in sick was Jan. 6, which was the first Monday of 2014. That day, 679 people were off.

Also making the CTF's top 25 was Sept. 23 (the day after a Roughrider home game), Nov. 27 (the day after the Riders' Grey Cup parade and rally), Nov. 4 (the first big storm of the winter) and Sept. 17, the day Grand Theft Auto was released. 

"Definitely looks like a few of these spikes in sick days aren't a coincidence," CTF Prairie Director Colin Craig said in a news release.

"The government could save a healthy amount of tax dollars if it tackled high sick day usage by government employees."

On the other hand, if Riders-related absenteeism is a problem, there are days when one might expect people to stay home when that didn't appear to be a big problem.

For instance, there's Nov. 25, 2013, the Monday right after the Grey Cup game that Saskatchewan won at home, which doesn't appear in the top 25. 

The taxpayers group said according to Statistics Canada, the average Saskatchewan worker outside government took just seven sick days in 2012, while the average provincial government worker took 11 days off.

On mobile? Here's the CTF's list of top 25 sick days.