There was more reaction in the Legislature on Wednesday to a CTV News report that found a number of AHS managers were taking months of sick leave every year without ever going on long term disability.
Opposition members went after the NDP government over the issue during Question Period, taking aim at Health Minister Sarah Hoffman, asking if she was concerned about the issue.
Premier Notley, meanwhile, angrily dismissed the allegations. “Suggesting that the hard working employees of AHS are somehow engaging in fraudulent behaviour is outrageous. It is slanderous.”
Documents acquired by CTV through access to information requests show hundreds of managers taking time off and collecting full pay over the last two years.
AHS managers are allowed to take 16 weeks of sick time and in many cases they did exactly that, before returning to work.
The details became known just as AHS gets another boost from the provincial budget and barely a year after it vowed to crack down on sick days in its ranks because they were eating up millions of dollars.
Even Dr. David Swann, Liberal leader, had concerns with the current environment of the AHS.
“[The number of] Health Sciences Association of Alberta members on long term disability in Alberta Health Services has doubled or more in the last three years and so have the costs.”
AHS interim president Verna Yiu sent a letter to CTV in response to the allegations, saying that the actual number of non-union employees who took the full allowance was only 56 out of 8,500 people while the majority did go on long term disability.
During Wednesday’s Question Period, Hoffman also defended the AHS, calling the allegations false.
“The use of sick days at AHS is lower than at any other health authority or, on average, across Western Canada including smaller jurisdictions.”
Others contend that the AHS sick leave standards are out of line with the rest of the private sector.
“When you compare what’s offered by the government to the private sector, 30 percent of government plans offer the option to bank sick time for the future, and only three percent in the private sector do so,” said Amber Ruddy with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
The CFIB says sick days cost the province $114M every year, or about $30 per person.
Statistics Canada data shows that Albertans took the fewest sick days in 2015, with five and half days on average.
(With files from Bill Macfarlane and Chris Epp)
AHS - MANAGEMENT/OUT-OF-SCOPE SICK DAYS - 2014
