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Greater Victoria School District and
Service Delivery Project
BCSSA
Summer Leadership
Academy 2014
Service Delivery Project
Purpose-Attendance Support
 Programs to improve employee wellness, provide safe and healthy
workplaces, and support employee attendance
 Result in better learning outcomes for students
 Result in better long term health outcomes for staff
 Research best practice models
 Data requirements and how best to collect, store and report the data.
 Provide draft programs
 Respect legislation, collective agreements and other regulations that
apply to the workplace
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Provincial Cost of Replacement Staffing
 Currently districts spend $154 million on replacement staffing or 3.1%
of budgets
 This is up from $73 million or 2.3% in 1993/94
 In 20 years, replacement costs have increased 210% while total
salaries have increased 47.5%
 Student Enrolment is almost equal between the two periods (550,873
today versus 554,146 in 1993/94)
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Service Delivery Project
Focus of Work-Non culpable absences
 Non-culpable or innocent absenteeism is absenteeism that is not within
the workers' control
 Categories:
 chronic/catastrophic
 finite absence
 short term illness
 non-medical leave
 substance abuse/addictions
 psychological and soft tissue illness/injury
What we Heard from CUPE and BCTF
 Not about Attendance Management, if so no buy-in by unions
 Needs to be an Integrated part of LTD and SIP plans
 Early return to work and wellness focus
 Return to work, mentorship, rehabilitation, limited intervention if
critically or chronically ill
Service Delivery Project
Worksafe Return to Work
 Duration of claims for school districts is up for 2012 – 42 days
versus 38 days in 2011
 Need to educate and develop trust in a return to work program
as it is the employer and employee that should determine what
employee can do as light duties – not the doctor
 Return to work is a necessary bridge between injury and full
return to work
Service Delivery Project
Return to Work-Stay at Work
 Understanding the costs – associated costs – WCB for every dollar
spent, WCB charging $3 to employer to cover costs
 3 to 6 times the direct costs for the indirect costs of absenteeism
 Managing the absence or return to work-real way to reduce cost is to
reduce time off work – modified work, modified duties, modified own
occupation
 Supernumerary is a cost savings
 Districts need to have budgets for return to work initiatives
 Sick leave, short term disability and long term disability need to work
together
Service Delivery Project
Principles and Best Practice
 Program should work with existing programs such as JEIS and BCTF
Health and Wellness Program
 Program should be open and transparent and share information about
the cost benefit analysis of return to work programs
 Purpose of program is supportive not punitive
 Program has to meet the current collective agreement language
 Cooperative between union and management in support of employeesall about relationships with employees
 Fairness and consistency
Attendance Awareness
Greater Victoria Timeline
2012/13
Initial Conversations with Senior Leadership
Oct/13
In-Camera Operations Committee Meeting
Oct/Nov/13
Met with Union Presidents
Nov/13
Operations Committee Meeting
Jan/14
Operations Committee Meeting
- GVTA Presentations
Jan/14
Board Meeting
- Motion Approved
Mar/14
Hired a Wellness and Attendance Support
Advisor
Motion
That the Board of Education of School
District No. 61 (Greater Victoria)
implement the Attendance Awareness
Program and proceed to hire a Human
Resource Advisor, Wellness and
Attendance Awareness, to coordinate
the program.
Motion Carried
Why?
Greater Victoria
Principles and Best Practice
 Attendance Support is part of the Health and Welfare Benefits
 Program must have a return to work and modified duties component
 Employer needs to understand the medical and work circumstances
and receive specialist and independent advice
 Program should have a supportive and coaching approach
 Employer needs data to understand if absence is excessive and data
needs to be shared
 Program should have an educational component for staff, managers
and union representatives
Objectives of Attendance
Awareness
• To promote optimal and consistent attendance at work.
• To raise awareness of the importance of good
attendance.
• To promote an atmosphere of mutual respect, fairness
and concerns.
• To provide a framework for responding to excessive
absenteeism.
• To assist individual employees overcome difficulties
which adversely affect consistent attendance and to
help prevent absenteeism problems from escalating.
• To preserve continuity of learning in the classroom.
Absence
Summary
Employee
Group
Average Days
Absent
2012/2013
Teachers
11.04
CUPE 747
11.43
CUPE 382
Exempt
18.31
7.16
P & VPs
6.19
Allied
Specialists
6.50
All
Employee
Groups
11.46
Absence Rate for Full-Time
Secondary and Elementary Teachers
Employed in British Columbia
2008 2009 2010 2011
8.4
8.1
6.3
8.9
Reduce employees who
are replaced by one day
$460,000
Provincially
How do we Compare for Sick Leave?
Our statistics and costs for days absent due to sick leave are greater than the national averages
at an annual cost of $35.8 million as shown in this table:
Employee
Group
Support
Unionized
Educators
NonUnionized
Educators
Exempt
Overall
Average
BC Average Days
per employee for
Sick leave (from
EDAS Data)
12.78
10.35
National
Averages in Days
from Statistics
Canada
8.6
7.6
Differenceaverage days per
employee
Cost of Difference
Based on Average
Salaries
4.18
2.75
$8.1 million
$24.6 million
7.21
3.3
3.91
$2.9 million
5.87
10.95
5.5
7.7
0.37
3.25
$0.2 million
$35.8 million
Provincially
How do we Compare?
 Statistics Canada also indicates that in the Education
Sector that an additional 1.8 days are taken for personal
or family responsibilities which would cost about $21
million in replacement costs
Provincial
Cost Benefit Analysis
 Estimated Savings if achieve national averages of $35.8
million
 Estimated Annual Costs:
Specialist Support
$625,000 to $1,000,000
Modified Work
$3,500,000
 Total Cost of about $4.125 to $4.5 million which will need
to be invested annually to implement the program prior
to savings being obtained
Wellness and
Attendance Support
Advisor
• Wellness
• Disability
Management
• Attendance
Support
Katie Dragert
BSc and PhD - Kinesiology
March – June 2014
• Information gathering from other school
districts
• Attendance Support Program (ASP) draft
document
• Union Conversations
• Data – SRB
• DLT
• Principals Working Group
July – September 2014
• Training Preparation
• Principals, Vice-Principals,
Managers Training
The Program
• Culpable versus Non-Culpable
• Conversations at School Level
• Human Resources support and
Involvement
Service Delivery Project
Recommendations
 School Districts adopt common policies and procedures
with best practice guidelines.
 District use the programs of the BC Public Service
Agency and the City of Coquitlam and the principles
outlined in this report as a basis for their polices.
 Districts have access to shared specialized expertise
such as medical advisors and occupational therapists
 This would create a system wide solution that can be
well understood by employees, BCTF and support staff
unions and management.
Service Delivery Project
Recommendations
 Districts without internal claims management expertise should
consider using the School District No. 23 (Central Okanagan)
program for these services
 In addition, expertise is needed for health and safety services and
districts should ensure access to these services which could be
available on a regional level.
 The overall goal is to create a culture:
 attendance support is part of the regular operations of schools
and districts
 employees feel supported,
 employee representatives are involved
 It is recognized throughout the system, that the work with
and for our students is improved by employee wellness.
Provincial
Benefits of Common Implementation
 Common implementation may provide for less conflict at a
district level-although each district will need to approve
their policy and work with local employee groups
 Cooperation and integration with WorkSafe BC, BCTF and
PEBT programs
 Is a wellness and support initiative not attendance
management
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Service Delivery Project
Looking for Pilot Districts
Thank you and Questions