I work in the public sector too and have accumulated 1941 hrs of banked sick hours. I expect to use it if I get sick, not paid out for being healthy. In times of economic frugality, your municipality is being irresponsible with tax payers money, IMO. I've seen numerous colleagues taking redundancy this year due to budget cut backs and when i hear stories like this it puts my piss on simmer.

The past 3 years I've got a Christmas bonus of $400 less taxes. We'll get this year's on Friday...fingers crossed.

Our Christmas lunch is on Wednesday at The Four Seasons. The office is closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day! (And yes, we get paid for those days)

IMO Attendance incentive schemes like these usually succeed in ensuring that people who should be off sick and at home in bed are at work and spreading the illness.

Wow, that's a ton of banked sick time. I honestly didn't think you could bank that much.

And, not a big fan of people getting their sick time paid out but to each their own.

OH usually gets a healthy bonus, a couple of hundred dollars at least, new owners this year though, so it's a wait and see.

I don't understand the sick leave thing. Can someone explain it please?

Some people get paid their wages when they're off sick. In addition, they get paid a bonus if they're not sick. Apparently this represents good value to the taxpayer.

Public sector workers are "sick" twice as often as those in the private sector. Averaging something like 14 days/year.

Well back in Blighty in the NHS you got sick pay if you were sick, but you are saying if you are not sick you get the pay for this time if you are not sick? Seems odd.

In our municipality you don't get any sick pay for the first six months. You just don't get paid! After that you only get 90% of your regular pay if you are off sick. This means that some of my colleagues bring their nasty germs into the office and give them to everyone else because some of them can't afford the pay cut

Public sector workers have an allowance of sick days. Many of them use them as extra vacation. Nobody bats an eyelid.

My company usually pays everyone £500 at Xmas. There is also a staff lunch sometime in the New Year.

Performance bonuses are another thing. They normally come out at the end of fiscal (September) and depend on how we're doing financially. There is a recession going on, so no bonus (although I did get a 4% pay increase).

I disagree.

If I'd have taken more than 1 day off sick this year, it would have cost my employer more than paying the attendance incentive.

I can't bank sick leave unfortunately. I assume you can add your unused sick leave to your pension?

Ah the old argument about sick time has reared its ugly head.
So you are starting out in your new job and like most sick time is way down on the list of priorities as you are young and dont get sick. High on your priority list will be salary or hourly rate and vacation time or what benefits you may or may not receive. Are you a unionized worker or not? Do you work on the public sector side or the private sector side.
If you are sick and need to take time off work do you get paid or not?
There are so many different variations in how sick time is treated rightly or wrongly.
So is it my fault I chose a career in the public service that gives me X amount of sick time that can be accumulated and carried over.
I dont get a bonus for not using it nor do I get a portion of it paid out for not using it. If at the end of my career on retirement I have X amount of hours left then I dont get a payout or a bonus I simply lose it.
I could of course do like others do and find that magic Dr who will sign me off as sick and use those hours.
So what happens if I am really sick and need 6 months off work for treatment but can return to work should the sick time I have accumulated be used for that?
BTW I have over 2200 hrs of sick time banked so you do the maths to see how often Im sick or how much I abuse the system

That's a sic amount of sick time

I'd you're genuinely sick, taking time off should really be a non-issue for your employer. It's just part of life and conducting business. Staff shouldn't be incentivized for manipulating or abusing illness.

No, I can't add unused sick leave to my pension. Why should I be able to?