Sick joke as council staff take twice as much time off

As public bodies come under pressure to cut costs and operate more efficiently, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show the total number of sick days taken by Yorkshire's council employees during 2009/10 was more than 1.9 million.

Local authorities are typically among the biggest employers in the region and the total cost to Yorkshire taxpayers for sick pay, agency staff and lost productivity for the year is estimated at more than 150m.

The figures reveal massive gulfs between staff sickness rates at different councils. The highest in the region was at Doncaster where the 10,000 employees each took an average of 12.7 days off sick. It was one of seven where staff took the equivalent of more than a fortnight off each, costing the authority more than 10m.

Doncaster has lurched from one crisis to another and following a damning report from the Audit Commission which warned it was incapable of putting its house in order without help, the Government intervened and a new chief executive took charge last week.

Its director of people and performance improvement, Kay Leigh, said a review of its sickness policy was under way and absence figures for the first three months of the new financial year show a "marked improvement".

"The council has a clear written policy for managing staff sickness absence, and for taking decisive action to reduce absence levels in order to minimise disruption of services, reduce costs and encourage the promotion of good health," she said.

"We are currently reviewing this policy to see if any further improvements can be made."

The Yorkshire Post's study shows that on average each council worker in the region took nine-and-a-half days off sick last year. This is more than 60 per cent higher than their equivalents in private sector jobs, who average just over a working week off each.

The authority with the second-highest absence figures was Craven District Council, whose 240 members of staff took an average of 12.6 days off each during 2009/10. Craven is under severe financial pressure, and staff were rocked by rumours of a merger with a neighbouring authority earlier in the summer.

But Samia Hussain, the council's corporate head, said its high absence figures were down to a number of serious illnesses last year.

"Unfortunately last year we had a number of staff absent for long periods of time with serious medical conditions which were completely out of anyone's control," she said.

"Craven is a small council, so these few cases had a huge impact on our overall sickness levels.

"However, over the last year we have introduced a number of measures to reduce our sickness levels; line managers have been given training and guidance to support those off sick and staff have access to well being activities.

"These are starting to have an impact as sickness absence has fallen in the first quarter of 2010/11."

The league table of sickness absence compiled by the Yorkshire Post highlights the stark contrast between different authorities. The best-performing council was Selby, where staff took an average of 6.25 sick days last year – less than half that in Doncaster and Craven.

A spokesman for Selby said the figure was a "record low" for the authority, with nearly a third of its staff not taking a single day off sick.

Council leader Mark Crane said: "This isn't about making people come into work when they've not well – this is about supporting our staff to make sure they're not absent with things that can be prevented, such as stress or workplace accidents.

"Less absence from work benefits everyone – individuals, the organisation and the people we serve. It means we can use our resources more effectively, increasingly important in these tough economic times."

The marked gap between public and private sector absence figures has long been a problem for public sector organisations in the UK. A nationwide study by the Confederation of British Industry published in June found the average private sector worker took 5.8 days off sick in 2009, compared with 8.3 days in the public sector.

The average across Yorkshire's 22 councils last year was considerably higher, at 9.56 days.

A separate study by the Local Government Association – which represents 422 local authorities around the country – suggests, however, this is about average for councils in England and Wales

"Local government has one of the lowest rates of sickness absence of any part of the public sector," its spokeswoman said.

"Sickness rates are affected by the fact that some jobs within local government, such as social work, are incredibly stressful. Despite this councils have worked hard to successfully bring sickness rates down."