Our federal public sector workers are ill!

[BubberMiley]

They are indeed highly trained! By their Union! How to strike, how to hold a picket, how to burn tax dollars, how to totally ignore the youth they are supposed to mentor.

I have to concede that your teachers must have sucked.

[Guest Peeves]

But they aren't paid over the summer which was my point. If you think you can get a highly trained Math or Science teacher who will actually help our future by encouraging the R&D minds of tomorrow for less good on you. However when the math and Science scores drop in comparison to the rest of the world don't cry about it.

So then they draw E.I. do they?

Or work another job to make a living wage?

Or Take 'it' as a two month vacation like we get (not.)

[Guest Peeves]

I have to concede that your teachers must have sucked.

Missed another point, "Blackmail the government for more...More MORE!

[WWWTT]

A friend I'd played golf with worked at the same firm as a machinist, never

missed a day of work. He retired at 62. Worked there 44 years.

Of course he was working for a private industry, not the public sector, city, government, teacher, or cop,

I also new this guy that worked every single day.And he also worked all the OT that was offered.

Since he was a foreman/supervisor he practically worked every Saturday and/or Sunday too!

He also built up a freekin huge pension.

Years ago he asked me if I wanted to work on a Saturday but I told him I could not because I had to help a friend move(or something like that). He gave me a scolding on the importance of work.(and I always disagreed with him about this)

Fast forward twenty years.This guy retires at 65 or 66.Six months after retiring he died!

I actually kind of chuckled because in the end I won the argument!

WWWTT

[BubberMiley]

It's a question of whether the taxpayer should be paying undergrads 50-75k + pensions + ridiculous benefits for 8 months of work.

No, it's a question of whether it's in the interest of the taxpayer to listen to uneducated people devalue education.

[punked]

I think you're missing the point.

It's not a question of whether others would like to also have summers off and bankable sick days, and PD days, and defined benefit pensions. It's a question of whether the taxpayer should be paying undergrads 50-75k + pensions + ridiculous benefits for 8 months of work.

Even if you are a champion of the public sector, you could reduce unemployment simply by paying teachers less, hiring more of them, and reducing class sizes. There's no reason to pay them that much for 8 months of work in this economy.

The only way a teacher in most parts of the country can break out of the 55-60 thousand dollar cap is to get 1-2 Masters so your thought of this imaginary teacher earning 75 grand with out spending 4-6 more years in school while they are teaching is well a lie. As most things you say in this thread. It might make your argument better but it is wrong. In fact you are wrong so much in this thread I am not sure if anyone but people who would rather believe a lie then be told the truth should even listen to you. Although I guess Conservatives would rather govern on lies then have to debate the truth anyway so.

[ironstone]

If you want to go down to your local cancer treatment centre, sure.

Well, only in that when their members get sick they tend to stay home. While in the private sector people try to get into work no matter how badly they're feeling in case they lose a day's pay or get fired.

Additionally, because when they don't often use sick leave it builds it up for years they have it available when and if some major health calamity befalls them. So if they have to be off work for months at a time they will use up their sick leave before they go on something like EI or disability payments. Those who don't have such sick leave, ie, the majority in the private sector, have to immediately go on EI or disability. That alone throws off the figures considerably.

Let's be perfectly honest here,it's a very safe bet that the overwhelming majority of sick days are used as vacation days.I have no doubt that most of these days off are Mondays and Fridays.Spare me the nonsense about stress and overwork.Public servants in Canada on the whole have much better pay,much more time off,and a lighter workload than does the average private sector worker.

It's not a stretch to say that the typical gov't worker get's as much or more time off in sick leave than many private sector employees.

Don't they also have something called "volunteer days" as well?They have it so much better than most Canadians and yet,they are the one's the complain the most by far.

My father used to work at NRC years ago and he loved to drink on weekends.Every year he missed a few weeks because he was often too hung over to go to work on Mondays.That would not be tolerated in the private sector but dad didn't have to worry,after all,he was in the government.

[Argus]

You didn't point out anything to anyone with half a brain. For some reason you used a sample of 10 employees to show that 1 employee taking an extended leave (5 months!!!) will throw the numbers way off. Do you really think 1 in 10 public workers needs back surgery, or some other 5 months of extended sick leave every year?

I haven't really done any studies. But it does happen and does throw off the statistics. The public service tends to be older, and, let's face facts, sedentary. A lot of them have back issues. A lot of have other issues. And it's generally not a happy workplace. Cubicles have been shrinking so the government can jam more people in closer together, and that helps diseases spread like wildfire through government offices. Many of the positions, particularly as you get above the clerical levels, have high stress levels, particularly middle management, and I've known a number of people who've gone off on extended stress leave - and at least one who is definitely headed that way if she doesn't stop working such long hours.

The reality is that public sector workers can, and do take many "sick" days off during the summers or because of a Monday morning hangover.

Sure. If you don't feel good, if you get a migraine or a hangover or whatever, then you don't go to work. That's what sick leave is for, you know.

They may work 4 day weeks for 2/4 summer months (8 "sick" days),

It's not quite that easy. If you start taking lots of time off without a valid reason management will start demanding doctors notes, and if it continues you'll wind up going to see their doctor to explain what's wrong with you.

I'm not saying there isn't abuse of the system. Of course there is! Anywhere there is sick leave there's going to be abuse. Anywhere. So is your answer to not have sick leave? What you consider to be overly generous benefits, btw, would be considered kind of stingy in most of Europe. So just who sets the standard? The 'right to work' states down south?

[Argus]

Let's be perfectly honest here,it's a very safe bet that the overwhelming majority of sick days are used as vacation days.I have no doubt that most of these days off are Mondays and Fridays.Spare me the nonsense about stress and overwork.Public servants in Canada on the whole have much better pay,much more time off,and a lighter workload than does the average private sector worker.

And all of the above based on not one shred of evidence.

[punked]

And all of the above based on not one shred of evidence.

This whole thread is based on misleading statistics without any details. It would never pass mustard in the Public or Private sector. If I brought this up in a first year stats class I would be laughed out of the room for the shoddy details but that doesn't stop Conservatives does it?

[cybercoma]

I have to concede that your teachers must have sucked.

Give the teachers a break. There's only so much you can do with a student that isn't there to learn.

[PIK]

You do know who the oldest Union in the country is right? It is the Nova Scotia Teachers Union. Guess how many times they have been on strike in the 125 years they have been around? Never. So I take your comments to be uninformed nonsense as always.

Again if you want to work a seasonal job you can have the summers off unpaid as well.

That is one union out of how many. But all that says is the teachers get what they want. I hang out with PS members and I will tell you why they take so much off, because they can and to them they are entitled to it. Plus family days and community days, they have so much time off they don' t have enough time to take it all off. They are spoiled and it needs to change, ever hear of greece? One more point, doctors do not like goverment and you can get a doctor's note anytime you want, more time off.

Edited June 25, 2012 by PIK

[The_Squid]

That is one union out of how many. But all that says is the teachers get what they want. I hang out with PS members and I will tell you why they take so much off, because they can and to them they are entitled to it. Plus family days and community days, they have so much time off they don' t have enough time to take it all off. They are spoiled and it needs to change, ever hear of greece? One more point, doctors do not like goverment and you can get a doctor's note anytime you want, more time off.

Wow... this post is just a bunch of rhetoric with nothing to substantiate it.

Well I work with a lot of PS employees and they are the hardest working, most dedicated group of people that I work with.

Which one of us is speaking truth? Is it somewhere in between your empty rhetoric and my good working relationships?

[PIK]

Wow... this post is just a bunch of rhetoric with nothing to substantiate it.

Well I work with a lot of PS employees and they are the hardest working, most dedicated group of people that I work with.

Which one of us is speaking truth? Is it somewhere in between your empty rhetoric and my good working relationships?

Not saying there is not hard working PS ,but there is alot more that are not. But I am right because they are human and humans abuse everything given to them. I got into it with few of them and they told me( I run a small business) I could not handle the stress, how fucking stupid is that, I don't have thier salary I don't have a pension I don't have any bennifits and one big mistake and I could lose everything. That there told me , he has no idea what is going on in real life and is totally spoiled. If 18000 can take off everyday, then we don't really need them. Or as you say you work with them, maybe you are out to lunch also.

[Fletch 27]

Umm, I'm just gonne "throw this out there"... But why can they not use those 18 days (with carry over) to strike and force this "oppresive government" to force their policies? On a side-not

E, why are the teachers threatening a strike commencing Sept 1st of this year? I KNOW they really care about the children but are they not aware that that's the same week the precious little darlings go back to get their education and better this cruel cruel world?

So the folks that are paid on our dime are not only very ill, dreadfully so, but they also do not have a grasp on the cycles and calendars of our future? I think they need more sick days... Cuz they are very much indeed "sick".....

[cybercoma]

Not saying there is not hard working PS ,but there is alot more that are not. But I am right because they are human and humans abuse everything given to them. I got into it with few of them and they told me( I run a small business) I could not handle the stress, how fucking stupid is that, I don't have thier salary I don't have a pension I don't have any bennifits and one big mistake and I could lose everything. That there told me , he has no idea what is going on in real life and is totally spoiled. If 18000 can take off everyday, then we don't really need them. Or as you say you work with them, maybe you are out to lunch also.

Do you know the difference between a fact and an opinion?