90,000 ‘sickies’ at Walsall Council
Friday 21st May 2010, 11:30AM BST.
Around 90,000 sick days – the equivalent of 246 years – were taken by workers at a Black Country council last year, prompting a get-tough crackdown.
Bosses will begin issuing warnings to Walsall Council staff after three spells of absence in a year and will target those pulling ‘sickies’ on “hot spot” days close to weekends and holidays.
Although the average number of days lost due to sickness per employees during 2009/10 fell from to 12.07 from 12.9 the previous year, chiefs say the figure is unacceptable.
They say they have been in talks with private firms and other local authorities that have lower levels of absence, in an effort to pick up ideas as to how to combat the problem.
Bosses at the council, which employs just over 10,000, have used spying on some staff on long-term sick to check they are truly ill.
Councillor Chris Towe, Walsall Council cabinet member for finance and personnel, said another measure set to be introduced would require staff to speak to a registered nurse on their first day off sickness, to get advice about treatment and whether they should see their GP.
“The message to employees is clear – these sickness levels are totally unacceptable,” he said.
“While progress is being made, and a reduction has been achieved, this is still not significant enough.”
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a warning after 3 sickies so if i have 3 days off in a year for a genuine illness and somebody else has 3 sickies and they are off 2 months a time we both get treated the same (not fair) to treat everbody the same
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So what else is new Expressandstar?? You always like to report on the public sectors sickdays. Do some research into the private sector. It might suprise you to know that it’s just as bad if not worse. I worked in a factory for a number of years and not week went by when there was a full complment of staff in all 13 years I worked there!! people get ill, and articles like this are basically saying to me that they are not ill just wagging it. Some will be, But most will be genuine cases.
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Public sector wages are paid from taxes ie by you and me, private sector wages are paid out of profits and anybody taking days off without just cause gets sacked! Do you “work” for the council St. Joe?
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Answer no I dont work for the council but dont forget the private sectors wages are paid by ALL ! of us as we buy the goods they make. People forget that one don’t they? Who pays Tesco workers wages one of the biggest employers in this country in retail eh?
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Answer: Tesco pay the wages of their workers out of their profits. If their workers took the same amount of sick leave as council employees then Tesco would go out of business. That’s why they are stricter with people taking days off!
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Yes paid out of profits made through all of us. Same as wages are paid to council workers from taxes paid by all of us.
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The DIFFERENCE is if Tesco lose money they go out of business, if councils lose money WE PAY HIGHER TAXES!!!
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I want my money back. Wasters.
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The Council should just pay the minimum statutory sick pay from day one that would soon sort out the skivers. Some people treat sick days as some sort of entitlement like holidays. What a waste of our council tax!
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“The equivalent of 246 years” is mathematically correct based on a 365 day year but put into a more practical perspective if we take a work year of 46 weeks of 5 days = 230 days; the real figure is an equivalent of 391 work years of absentees per year.
But I’m not sure I believe the figures in the the report. If 90,000 days represents 12.07 days per “worker” per year, then the total number of “workers” is 7456. If this is correct, what do they all find to do? (other than cover for the absentees each day)
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er thanks for that Frank but have you taken into account bank holidays?
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You’re welcome Dora. I didn’t consider that because they never get sick on a Bank Holiday!
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Absolute Disgrace Walsall Council!
10,000 employees and 90,000 sick days?
So that’s 9 days each? Disgusting!
And I can assure you it’s not worse in the Private Sector cos we have to make a profit and are responsible for all costs, unlike SOME of the wasters in the Public Sector.
Come and work in the private sector? You wouldn’t last 2 weeks!
SSP from day one FOR ALL Public Sector Workers…..absolutley! Come Mssr’s Cameron & Clegg, that would cut the deficit?
You work for us you know, we are a BIG Society and there are 3 million Public Sector workers compared to 30million plus in the Private Sector.
DON’T TAKE THE P**S, Get back to work you slackers!
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Your correct in the fact that its a far easier option to take paid time off in the public sector because they have a sick pay scheme,But I’ve worked in both sectors and can tell you there are some lazy slackers in the private sector as well. The only reason people dont take time off is, as you say they dont get paid. The public sector do work for the public , but the private sector works for everybody, as its all of us who buy the goods they make and keep them employed. There are an awfull lot of private firms out there that also run a sick pay scheme. I used to work for a company with one of these schemes in place and the staff there would always take advantage of it when they could. So it works both ways.
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St Joe you are missing the point. In the private sector high absenteeism means loss of profit and eventually the firm goes bust. In the public sector this doesn’t happen we just end up paying more taxes to pay for agency staff to do the work of these lazy slackers.
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I took 10 days off with swine flu and a chest problem resulting from swine flu…does that make me a waster? Because you seem to think it does, Just curious
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Its not nine days each though is it? There will be a high proportion of people who are on long term sick. With any large organisation you will encounter more people on long term absence for many reasons. And not all of these will be on full pay, or even half pay, any figures on this?
It would be interesting to see what proportion of workers in the public sector and private sector have no absence over the year. I think it will be quite close.
True there will be people swinging the lead. But the council does not do anything real to address it. By having hard and fast rules on periods of absence you are not encouraged to come back into work. You are ill you can’t go in, you go back in too early and have to go off again, low and behold one more ilness for any reason and you are “up on a charge” for potetnailly 3 days absence, whilst others have weeks off with no triggers.
The council should also compare absentee rates with temp workers at the council. They don’t get paid when they are off sick. But hey, you switch them from temp to perm and low and behold I bet they go off sick quicker than you can say “have you got an appointment for this morning please”.
Coupled with the fact that because of all the bonuses paid to perm staff and their pensions mean that agency staff will be cheaper than when they are perm. But hey, Cllr Towe, lets reduce the cost of spend on agencies eh?
Yes its bad, yes it should be better, but it may not as be as bad as is being made out, but the corrective measures are probably badly thought out.
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Agree with no.6
Most in the private sector have to be off for three days and only then SSP kicks in.
In 21 years of working I can count on both hands how many days I’ve had off ill and I’ve not got super human powers.
There are some people who would be genuinely ill who would lose out. If it was not for so many work shy individuals we wouldn’t be calling for it.
We’ll probably get the usual defense about how low morale is and how the pressures too great. It’s a job.. if you don’t like it get another one. Don’t moan and fleece the hard working in this society.
Let’s see what the figures are like after world cup year!
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Public sector or private sector, a member of staff is paid to be at work and at all times should endevour to turn up and carry out thier duty for which they are being paid. The problem is those that abuse the sick pay and treat a sick day as taking extra holiday. By referring to occ.health at 3 absences or max. day 10 days or if an unusual pattern occurs will help to stop this abuse. If you are genuinely poorly then you have nothing to be worried about being referred. If you are taking the **** then you only have yourself to blame.
We need to get tough in my opinion.
Public sector worker
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Vicky, spot on!!!
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And there they are issueing a fixed penalty notice for £50 on a Bank Holiday. The time plate mentioned only Monday to Saturday and their website mentions nothing about restrictions on BH. How is one to know if he is parked lawfully? Another way to steal money from the low paid.
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Baz, what’s this got to do with council employees taking time off work? Have you been drinking?
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Not yet. But think about it, where are they getting lucrative sick pay from? A £50 ticket reduced to £25 if paid within 14 days. What chance does one stand of winning an appeal on the grounds that restrictions do apply on BH?
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the whole problem is the fact they get full pay while off sick, the private sector gets ssp which is approx £70 per week council workers could get this for one day . stop the sick pay problem solved we might not have to pay so much council tax
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In the private sector we have a choice over who we buy our goods and services from. If Tescos prices rise or standards drop due to staff skiving off sick then we can go to ASDA or Sainsburys. Therefore the private sector tends to operate better rules on sickness
Public sector were just stuck with and consequently they are able to get away with providing sub standard services at high cost, partly due to high absenteeism levels
Crack down on the offenders and ensure the good councils workers dont get a bad name
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Well said! Perhaps the council should put more of its services in the private sector.
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Yes just like selling education to SERCO! (who have closed one school and succesfully reduced another to special measures) or maybe Tarmac who are charged with looking after our roads, do i need to say more?
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Dora Jarr..Go moan at the Bankers in the private sector who took yours and my money, then took a large hand out from the tax payers to save their bacon. Then they payed them selves all big bonuses from making a loss. Go moan at them before you all moan about public sector workers again. The private sector is full of more managers who will rip of the poor people than the public sector ever was!!!!
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My experiences of Walsall council leaves me to suggest that it be closed down and Walsall be taken over by Birmingham. The amount of money that has gone missing or misspent every year is atrocious.The Government should launch an investigation into how many are employed at the Council and how many are actually needed.Ask the Locals and the Majority refer to them as Crooks Lining their own pockets.
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Wait till the strikes start, because they then make up their lost money by working overtime, same for time off sick, its a good fiddle
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