City Staff Overtime and Sick Leave Rose 20-23 Percent in Two Years; Auditor Wants Focused Review

Audit Committee · 2026-07-10 · 2026.AU13.11

City Staff Overtime and Sick Leave Rose 20-23 Percent in Two Years; Auditor Wants Focused Review

The Auditor General's continuous controls monitoring found that city staff overtime jumped 22.7 percent to $134.1 million and paid sick leave rose 20.9 percent to $131.9 million between 2023 and 2025. The report flags these increases as significant and recommends stronger internal controls and division-level monitoring, though management provided explanations for some growth. The item was received without debate or amendment.

amendedAudit Committee · Fri, Jul 10On the Toronto City Council agenda for 2026-07-29

Also in this item

• Paid sick leave (including ill-dependent) grew 20.9 percent in the same period, from $109.2 million to $131.9 million

• Overtime spending grew 22.7 percent in two years, from $109.3 million to $134.1 million

• Auditor recommends focused, division-level monitoring of payroll expenses and improvements to the Attendance Management Program

The journey

Fri, Jul 10 · Audit Committee · amended

Wed, Jul 29 · Toronto City Council · scheduled, not yet heard

You can still act

On the Toronto City Council agenda for 2026-07-29

Decision

The committee received the report. No recommendations were adopted, studied, or referred; the item functioned as disclosure of findings and management responses.

Watch it happen

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Why is this story here?

ContainedThe report is a controls finding with four recommendations for management to strengthen internal controls on payroll expenses. It identifies trends and exceptions but does not change policy or spending authority. A future council could adjust the Attendance Management Program or monitoring practices without major cost or reversibility friction. This is a bounded management improvement, not a structural decision.Touches a narrow groupThe increases in overtime and sick leave affect city operations and payroll costs, which ultimately influence budget and service delivery. However, no resident directly experiences this change in an ordinary week. The effect is indirect: taxpayers fund the payroll, but the item does not alter service levels, commute, rent, or safety for residents. A specific city worker's overtime or leave practice might be affected, but the item is a monitoring observation, not a policy change. The audience is management and the committee, not the public.

Stories are ordered by how much weight a decision carries and how directly it reaches daily life. They rise as a decision date approaches and fall as they age.

Official title: Continuous Controls Monitoring: City Staff Overtime, Absenteeism, and Other Payroll-Related Expenses · meeting video