Town Hall staff’s 'two weeks’ of sick leave
10:10am Sunday 5th February 2012 in News
TOWN Hall bosses are giving staff physiotherapy and counselling sessions to stop them going off sick after the latest figures revealed employees take an average of nearly two weeks off every year.
In 2006, the average council worker took 11.31 days off work sick, compared with 9.69 days in 2011.
The council has 11,000 employees, including teachers.
Between the start of last April and the end of last September 30, staff had a total of 18,906 days off sick, compared with 19,915 days in the same period in 2010.
Cllr Rosa Kaye, the council’s human resources representative, said: “We have to get the balance right between supporting our staff and giving the best value for money possible to the taxpayers. I am delighted we are heading in the right direction.”
When a member of staff goes off sick, they must now phone in to work each day for the first seven days.
On their return, they must have an interview with their boss and, if they have been off for three days within three months, they are automatically offered physiotherapy or coun- selling sessions. Managers have access to more infor- mation about how to deal with staff sickness, while councillors monitor the fig- ures every few months to see if improvements are being made.
The average adult and community services department worker had 4.52 days off between the start of April and the end of June in 2010, compared with 3.28 days in the same period in 2011. There were similar reductions in five of the other six council depart- ments in the same periods.
The chief executive’s department has seen a rise, but it has fewer employees than any other office, so a handful of staff on long- term sick leave can skew the figures.
Conservative leader Cllr John Walsh said: “We have always supported these measures and it is impor- tant we continue looking at other ways of reducing sick leave while taking into account the wellbeing of staff.”
