By Don Butler, The Ottawa Citizen June 12, 2009
OTTAWA — The incidence of disability claims by public servants hit a record high last year, and the union that represents most of them wants to know why.
According to the Public Service Alliance of Canada, unionized public servants filed 3,234 disability claims in 2008.
That’s an incidence of 14.26 claims per thousand, the highest ever. In 2007, the incidence was 12.77 per thousand.
Only once, in 1993, were more claims filed under the federal disability insurance plan. That year, public servants made 3,302 claims. But the plan covered 25,000 more people than it does today.
“2008 is the worst year yet,” John Gordon, PSAC’s president, said flatly. And based on preliminary data, the union says 2009 looks as if it’s going to be even worse.
“The question we have,” Gordon said, “is why is this and what are we doing about it?
“What’s happening with the workplace? Is it employee-employer relations, is it stress because of overwork? We don’t know. Somebody ought to take a look at what’s going on.”
As of April, 10,556 public servants — 4.6 per cent of the workforce — were drawing disability benefits. Of those, about 7,500 were permanently disabled.
Robert Makichuk, a spokesman for Treasury Board, said between one and 1.2 per cent of public servants become disabled every year, a rate that has remained stable in recent years.
The incidence of disability in the public service plan “reflects the rates in other public and private sector disability plans,” he said.
Female public servants make disability claims at roughly twice the rate of men. In 2008 women, who represent 54.4 per cent of the workforce, filed more than 70 per cent of all claims — up from two-thirds in 2007.
That likely reflects the fact that women face more pressures outside the office, Gordon said.
“It’s a pretty well-known fact that women tend to be the main people who give home care, and they’re trying to work to support the family as well. And there’s a lot of single mothers who work.”
But Makichuk described last year’s increase in female claims as a “bit of an outlier. The trend is pretty stable.”
Of all approved disability claims in 2008, more than 44 per cent involved mental health conditions, with depression accounting for about half of all cases.
The percentage of claims related to mental health has remained fairly steady for the past decade, but was only half as high as recently as 1991.
The prevalence of mental health conditions suggests stress is a major factor in causing disabilities, Gordon said.
The union wants to know what role growing workload pressures, such as the torrent of EI claims pouring in from the employed, are playing in generating stress.
“This government in particular keeps pushing the agencies and the departments to do more with less,” Gordon said.
Paradoxically, the public service added nearly 10,000 employees last year. With 226,800 unionized workers, it’s now nearly as large as it was in 1994.
“It’s not just a numbers issue,” Gordon agreed. “There’s more to it than that.”
Adding to stress, he said, are fears of layoffs when the government turns its attention to deficit reduction after the economic crisis passes.
“That certainly is on people’s minds,” Gordon said. “We’ve seen it before, 15 years ago, when 45,000 jobs were cut from the federal public service.”
Last year, the federal disability insurance plan, which began in 1970, paid out $229 million to affected employees.
The plan — mandatory for all public servants — pays up to 70 per cent of a disabled worker’s salary. Treasury Board covers 85 per cent of the cost, with employees paying the rest.
The government has been grappling with how to deal with the rising tide of disability claims.
Last November, federal managers and HR professionals attended a forum on workplace disability support. Its purpose was to disseminate information and “initiate a culture change around disability management issues.”
As well, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada is running a pilot project aimed at developing a new disability management policy.
The project is collecting medical records, physicians’ reports and return-to-work plans from employees in federal departments with the goal of speeding their reintegration into the workforce.
This year, Treasury Board distributed “guidance documents” to federal departments so they can provide workplace support more consistently and address the root causes of disability in the workplace, Makichuk said.
But Gordon said discussions are needed between unions, government departments and Treasury Board to “see what kind of solutions we can put in place.
“I think it can be done. People just need to sit down, take it seriously, and do it.”
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