Some school boards across Ontario are increasing measures to combat alleged sick leave abuse and address rising costs linked to staff absences.
The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) has taken the step of privately looking into sick leave use, a move that has drawn criticism from educators and unions who are concerned about its impact on staff morale.
The Toronto Elementary Catholic Teachers (TECT) recently warned members in a memo that they may be under surveillance.
TECT president Deborah Karam described the move as “heavy-handed,” and called on the TCDSB to address systemic challenges, such as stress, burnout and increased violence in classrooms, instead of what she views as punitive actions.
“Sick days provide teachers with the necessary time off to recover when they are sick,” Karam said. “Having teachers at their best when they are in classrooms working with students should be a goal that we all share.”
‘Facing burnout’
Mike Totten, president of the York unit of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, echoed Karam’s concerns and highlighted the pressures educators face.
“Teachers are managing a whole lot more today than 10 years ago,” Totten said. “We as teachers love our job, care about our students and understand the importance of being in the classroom. So, if we aren’t there, it’s because we’ve hit that point of burnout.”
Totten also questioned the effectiveness of these measures, saying the data of its effectiveness is not disclosed.
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“There is a budget analysis in our board meetings that talks about surveillance,” he said. “I don’t know how effective it is — we don’t get data from the board showing if this reduces teacher absences or not.”
Karam highlighted that the school boards are overlooking broader challenges faced by educators, noting that “the additional burdens placed on classes, missing their planning time, managing students’ heightened emotional and behavioral dysregulation since the pandemic and dealing with increased violence in schools are taking its toll.”
A TECT survey revealed that 82 per cent of its teachers reported experiencing at least one incident of violence or threats against themselves or another teacher in the past year.
Meanwhile, only 11 per cent of respondents felt their school board recognized student violence as a problem.
Karam’s union urges the TCDSB to focus on addressing these issues, rather than other matters.
“It does not serve Catholic teachers, our students or our school communities for the board to be vilifying teachers when those resources could be spent to better the learning and working conditions in our schools,” she said.
‘A fiduciary duty’
The TCDSB declined to comment on the matter, but other Ontario school boards have pointed to rising absences as a financial problem.
A spokesperson from York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) acknowledged that staff absenteeism contributes to the board’s financial deficit, adding that “for the past two years, our board has maintained a surveillance fund to investigate the possible repeated abuse of sick days staff.”
However, the YCDSB emphasized its support for appropriate sick leave use, stating that “we encourage staff to use their sick days when needed, as described under the collective bargaining agreement.”
The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) also shared similar sentiments, with a spokesperson saying in an email to Global News that sick days are a “valuable benefit intended to provide income protection when our staff are unable to work.”
“School boards are publicly funded institutions that have a fiduciary duty to ensure resources are being properly used and allocated,” the spokesperson said. “No DPCSDB employee would ever be disciplined or fired for the appropriate use of sick day.”
While school boards view these added measures of surveilling sick days as necessary to maintain financial accountability, educators say they could erode trust and fail to address the systemic issues driving absences.
“Education is suffering now, and I think the money can be put to better use,” Totten said.
Global News reached out to the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, and Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation for comment but did not hear back by publication time.
Karam emphasized that the measures do not pose a problem for individual teachers, but rather the schooling system as a whole.
“This approach shows just how much trust and respect has disintegrated within our school community,” she said.
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