Council loses 3,000 days to sickness

11:20am Friday 8th August 2008

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Craven District Council workers took more than two weeks off sick, on average, during the last year.

In the year to April, the council's highest paid management team performed second worst, with an average of more than 15 days off sick each, with waste management clocking up an average of more than 22 days.

Stress was the main reason for long-term sickness of more than six weeks, with viral infections the most common reason for short-term sickness.

The average number of sick days for each council employee was 12.52 - meaning 3,142 days were lost to the council or 5.49 per cent of total working days.

Bradford Council employees took an average of 12.56 days, while North Yorkshire County Council workers took 7.8 days.

Coun Helen Firth, chairman of Craven District Council's overview and scrutiny committee, which discussed the findings, said the sickness absence record had improved since April.

She said the current first quarter was considerably better due to initiatives started by the human resources department, like the training of line managers to conduct back-to-work interviews and contact in the initial stages of sickness to establish if the council could help.

"In a small organisation like CDC the effect a couple of long-term sick staff has on the figures is considerable and it can bring the overall average up disproportionately. A large percentage of staff had no time off sick at all in the last year," she said.

Best performers were cultural services and human resources, with little more than one day off sick on average.

The council failed to hit its own target of 10 days by more than two days and recorded the highest level in five years. It has introduced sickness monitoring and a number of other initiatives to help reduce the number of days taken off sick.