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464 years of council sickies in 12 months
Thursday 9th July 2009, 11:30AM BST.
Almost 170,000 sick days were taken by workers at a Black Country council last year – an increase of around 13,000.
Walsall Council chiefs today said they would look at private firms’ approach to absences, to crackdown on the problem.
The 13,139 employees at the council took an average of sick 12.9 days in 2008/09, which works out at a total of 169,493 days – the equivalent of 464 years. And despite 800 more staff members employed over the previous 12 months, the workers’ had a 11.21 sick day average for 2007/08. This meant there was a much lower figure of 156,480 days lost.
It comes after it emerged that the authority spied on employees on sick leave last year.
While it is thought the lengthy absences of a small number of staff accounts for a lot of those lost days, personnel bosses in Walsall are keen to learn from other organisations that have combated similar problems.
Councillor Chris Towe, borough finance chief, said future priorities would include a drive to reduce accidents and work-related sickness.
“Walsall Council has never been safer, but our sickness absence remains a challenge,” he said.
“It’s prudent for us to learn from other public and private sector organisations that have successfully managed to reduce sickness levels.
“In an environment of constant change it is important to keep a clear focus on our safety improvement agenda.
“We recognise that we are in a changing global environment, where there are other equally important pressures on us to succeed, not least the financial challenges affecting residents, businesses and ourselves.”
A report to the members of the cabinet will be discussed next Wednesday at Walsall Council House.
Cannock Chase council staff took an average of 13 sick days off last year, compared with 10.6 in the previous year. In Wolverhampton in 2007/08 the figure was 11.5 days per worker.
An in Sandwell, the figure was 11.98 days in 2008/09, up slightly from 11.84 the previous year.
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I worked for a company in the private sector and there wasn’t a week went by when the company had a full compliment of staff. This is a nation wide problem for both sectors in the uk. Some people are genuinely ill and its not just council staff that are wagging it, although once again it seems they are the ones highlighted. Express and star do a survey of private companies and staff absence-you might be suprised at those figures when you do your homework!!!
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How many of these people who consistantly throw a sickie get full pay while they are off work?
My guess is that the majority will be office based salaried workers with kids in school, and that most of the days off are when the kids are off school, or around christmas shopping time.
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dont pay them full pay, use the sick pay system, that will cut down on sick days dramatically.
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What a joke!!!
They should work in the real world not ” I want a day off to watch “Loose Women”!!
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Lisa-Most of them would get full pay even if you used the sickpay scheme. Depends on years of service. Full service is 6 months full and 6 months half i believe.
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I agree with Jon, as usual its the lcoal councils who’re highlighted (didn’t Express & Star run a similiar if not the same story only a couple of months ago?). I was off work for 8 months last year due to breast cancer, I’m on longterm meds which make me feel ill and still undergoing injections and hospital appointments and in a full time job. Wagging it? I wished!!
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Do as they do in America, 8 days or so sick days, then short term sickness, then long term sickness at reduced salaries, you would find sick days would decrease. It isn’t only Councils and Governments, it is the private sector too. Another British sickness!
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Here are the facts. A recent HSE survey found there are higher rates of under-recording of sickness absence by private sector organisations compared to the public sector and especially in small businesses. The popular view (as reported by The Express and Star) that public sector workers take more sick than private sector colleagues is misleading. Differences in absence rates are very small ie 0.3 days per employee in public/private sectors. Sickness levels are higher in large organisations. Most public sector workers are employed by large employers. Within private sector organisations the average sickness rates were 4 days per year for employees in small businesses compared to 7 days per year in the larger ones. So before readers wade in, please consider the facts.
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Please someone explain to me why a council needs 13,139 employees?
Cut this by 90% and they would still be overstaffed but at least those working would actually have to work.
13,139 people working for a small council like Walsall? This is about 7% of the total population. Incredible!
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Peter- They dont all cram into the council offices. They work in schools as support staff and include teachers, staff at the counci offices, libraries social services do i need to go on. The average employees is about 10 thousand per council all over the country. I suppose 10% could run all ourservices if they worked 24 hours aday and we cloned them. Do talk some sense!!!!!
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From my personal experience of being employed by the private sector, yet working into the public sector, there is HUGE difference in mindsets..
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As the report states they believe the majority of sickness relates to those on long term sick!
People should read comment 8 before sticking their oar in however who wants a headline of “Council has Sick Rate Akin to Large Private Organisation”
Another piece of sensational journalism followed by knee jerk reactions!
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Has anyone at Walsall council considered introducing sme form of Always There scheme, with a reward (gift tokens, extra day’s annual leave, etc.) for any person who goes a full year without any time off sick ?
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The same council where 400 people applied for 50 redundancies.
They don’t want to be there and I don’t want to pay them.
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Where I work, if you don’t turn up ,you don’t get paid!!! Try this method Walsall MBC & watch the sickies drop.
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If they don’t turn up, dont pay ‘em, simple
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Give the jobs to people who want them, not those who just think they are safe.
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Jimbo-Where does it say anything about the council has sick rate akin to private organisation? Please learn to read! It is sensational crappy reporting -not journalism!!
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there all at it easy money our taxses pay for these parasites,the law must be changed were you are only paid for 10 day in a year for sick pay then after that you get benefit pay,makes ya sick.
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Roger J – Wolverhampton Council run the same this incentive 1 days extra leave for no sick.. I went for year with no sick and all you get is ONE extra day….this is not an incentive for those who take weeks off sick to supplement their annual leave.. dont get me wrong there are some genuine case, but unfortunately from my experience in the public sector it is over shadowed by those taking the mick with sickness.
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Agree totally with John (11).
Working in the private sectore myself, for public sector companies, we get interviewed by company doctor if we go over the average sick total of 6 days.
Obviously exceptions occur, but these are substantiated with relevant doctors notes and consultation between GP and company doctor.
Colds & Flu should be managed correctly to prevent spreading of germs (especially in the current climate of H1N1), so home working is employed in these circumstances. This is easily monitored by monitoring the outputs of these home-working individuals.
The relaxed status and ‘duvet day’ mentality of many (NOTE not all!) council employees is a big problem and should be attacked and removed asap, in my humble opinion.
These publicly available statistics suggest that this is a bigger problem in the public sector, and my experience gives me no reason to doubt them.
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20 – why should you be incentivised to not have sick days?
If you are not sick for a whole year then that is the ‘norm’ to aim for. Average sick days in the private sector is 6-8 days per year, why should council workers have incentive schemes or average nearly double that?
In my humble opinion (as a private sector worker who works for public sector clients) there is a vast difference in attitude towards sick and ‘duvet’ days.
In truth, council workers are servants to our society, and should lead by example. Councils have less commercial pressures than public sector companies and should therefore have less ‘stress’ related illnesses to deal with.
Yes genuine cases exist in any organisation, but at our company (over 10,000 employees) we have to report to company doctor if we exceed the average of 6 days of sick leave.
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