Thank you.

Prior to my 17 years as the president of LabourWatch and 18 parallel years running a management consulting firm, I spent 15 years in senior human resources roles. I was the head of human resources and other departments for the Vancouver family that started and ran Future Shop, and it had stores at that time in both Canada and the United States. Before that, I was the head of risk management and human resources for Wendy's restaurants. I was there when Dave Thomas bought Tim Hortons from Ron Joyce, senior, in 1995. I also was head of information systems and human resources for a Canadian high-tech company.

I watched Monday's committee proceedings. They appeared to be a PG-rated sequel to the 2015 general election. I was struck in particular by the discussion of absenteeism, because of the near total absence of discussion of actual data.

I carry two provincial human resources designations and have worked in this field since 1981. I have studied, implemented, and revamped workers' compensation, sick leave, short-term disability, and long-term disability programs in two countries. While at Wendy's, we reviewed our programs, ironically, with the input of both William—or Bill—Francis Morneaus, senior and junior. I worked with other top consulting firms both on the assessment and redesign of such programs.

A former Statistics Canada chief economic analyst, who worked there for 36 years, authored a 2015 Macdonald-Laurier Institute report. It said:

Overhauling sick leave would be a small step in re-aligning federal pay and benefits with those of the private sector workers who ultimately pay those benefits....

...estimates for the private sector are likely too high, since the self-employed (who are not covered in these results) work longer hours and retire much later....

The LFS estimates for the public sector appear to be highly accurate, with its estimate of 10.5 days in the federal civil service closely matching the estimate of 10.3 days made by the Parliamentary Budget Office.... Sick leave data do not include the 6000 federal employees on long-term disability, which would add another 6 days to the overall sick leave total taken by the average federal employee.

Finance Minister Morneau's former consulting firm sponsored a 2013 Conference Board of Canada report on absenteeism. Morneau Shepell released their own briefing document that reported, for example, that their clients had reduced short-term disability duration by 23% and that the estimated direct cost of absenteeism in Canada in 2012 was $16.6 billion.

Here is what I know from my decades of experience.

Program design can have a very significant influence on use. The federal program appears to be unique. Some suggest it may not be working like other programs elsewhere, not only in Canada but in other parts of the world. Abuse is a possibility in any program, whether it is higher instances of absences on Mondays or, as they found in Saskatchewan, on the day Grand Theft Auto was released or various whole weeks that are taken by people prior to scheduled vacations. I've seen this abuse in my capacity and appropriately investigated in the interests of our employees. Abuse that is not addressed may have a further negative impact on employee engagement, influence “me too” behaviour, and negatively impact morale, service, and production levels.

At Monday's hearing, Treasury Board President Scott Brison praised his predecessor Tony Clement for commissioning what he described as a very good joint union–Treasury Board report on mental health in the workplace. That is to be commended. Messrs. Brison and Clement also appear to concur on the concern that the design of the federal government programs may not be working for employees with fewer years of service. Other reports and analyses underscore the point made by Messrs. Brison and Clement.

I've reviewed numerous reports, news stories, and union leader statements. Mark Twain may have popularized the saying “lies, damned lies, and statistics”. For example, our friends at CAPE have an undated hit still online regarding Mr. Clement. CAPE claims:

Statistics Canada published a report indicating that public sector workers take more or less the same number of days of sick leave as do workers in the private sector. In fact, the difference between the public and private sectors, the report noted, was only a few hours per year. Obviously, this was not something to get worked up about!

I suggest that this 2013 report does not truly say that at all. What it does is suggest that if one adjusts for certain demographics, the government-to-private sector absence gap narrows. That does not address what Morneau Shepell, the Conference Board of Canada, and the three decades of experience that this practitioner sitting before you would propose: get the data, analyze, research, and make informed choices to see if absences can be reduced to the benefit of all employees, customers—however you wish to define customers internally or externally, in government or outside of government—as well as taxpayers.

For the health of the workplace and in pursuit of improved workplace attendance, I encourage us to set aside some political theatre, such as we saw on Monday, avoid games—

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