Council staff in shock sickness rate
Tuesday 21st December 2010, 11:30AM GMT.
Hundreds of council staff in the West Midlands are taking time off sick and blaming stress or psychological illnesses, new figures reveal today.
Council bosses have vowed a clampdown on sickness absence, which is far higher in the public sector than in the private.
The cost to taxpayers in the West Midlands is around £5 million in missed wages. Sandwell Council has had 718 people take time off sick for stress, depression and anxiety in 2009/10 compared with 807 the year before and 732 in 2007/08.
Staffordshire County Council lost around 25,000 days to sickness for stress, depression or anxiety each year for the past three years and 13,924 days so far in 2010/11.
Around 700 people a year are taking time off sick with psychological illnesses.
Staffordshire’s human resources chief Councillor Mark Winnington said: “We need to combat sickness absence in general to improve the efficiency of the council, and have a number of measures in place to support managers in supervising attendance at work and the employee through the period of absence and their return to work.”
Stafford Borough Council paid £79,000 in sickness wages to 49 staff with psychological illnesses since 2007. In Lichfield, 53 staff were paid £40,795.
Wyre Forest District Council paid out £102,000 to 71 staff while South Staffordshire Council paid £36,500 to 41 staff.
Cannock Chase Council had 31 employees on statutory sick pay last year for psychological illness, costing £89,178. So far this financial year, 22 staff have had to take time off.
Wolverhampton City Council staff each took an average of 11.4 days sick last year — the equivalent of 199 years over the entire 6,400-strong workforce.
Last year Sandwell’s 13,759 workers called in sick 111,860 times, at an average of 8.13 days each.
The average of 7.33 days taken by Dudley’s 10,535 staff saw 77,221 days lost to sickness in the nine months up to January. At Walsall Council, the 7,425 full-time equivalent staff racked up 40,095 sickies in six months.
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Council staff will be be the first to stike once the job cuts are introduced.
Any manager within the private sector would not employ council workers because of their lazy attitude to work.
The sooner these job cuts are introduced the better,and stop this gravy chain and waste of hard earned rate payers money.
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Andrew, i completely agree with you! Most people in the private sector have one or two days off a year sick where these lazy council workers take advantage of knowing their sick days will be paid for… its just not on and something needs to be done!
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What world do you live in Rob. I worked in the private sector for many years and there wasn’t a week went by when we had a full compliment of staff Ha ha What a laugh. The private setor are as just as bad!! I also worked in the public sector in schools and most staff tried as hard as possible to turn up every day.
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did you take a spelling test for your job in the school
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aka…that’s just a typing error not a spelling mistake!
and as a council worker I take umbridge at all these negative comments…I have had one day off sick in two years….and the majority of staff in my office are the same……..so please Rob, Andrew and anyone else stop tarring everyone with the same brush
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“Council staff will be be the first to stike once the job cuts are introduced.” You mean like the British Airways Cabin Crew?
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Andrew…DO NOT tarnish every council worker with the same brush! I work for the council and I do not have a “lazy attitude to work”.
From the minute I start I do not stop until I get home, and that’s the way I like it, it makes the day go quicker for me..yes some of my collegues are a bit more laid back than some but certainly not all of us….how dare you?!!!
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I agree with you Lindsey – shallow minded people like to stereo type and i am certainly NOT lazy, there are lots of hard working council workers, its the minority who give us a bad name. Unfortunately i have worked with a couple of people who do take the biscuit when it comes to sickness. I hadnt taken any sick days in 5 years and theyre are many more people who dont use up sick days, and i certainly havent taken any time off for stress.
Further more – i now work in the private sector and my managers saw my potential, assertiveness and tenacity to enable me to secure employment with their organisation and they are pleased with the results.
I take it youve never worked for a local autority Andrew!!!
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Andrew firstly what is a STIKE? I am truly offended by your comments. I work for the council and let me tell you that you should not tar all of us with the same brush. I work very hard indeed and take pride in what I do. I think that the people who make these negative comments should sit back and think twice, after all most of them are probably dole dossers funded by who? Yes me the tax payer.
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Is it not more important to look at the reasons causing stress, depression and mental health issues than to humiliate and demonise those staff who are ill and take time off?
With the cuts and job losses, teams that were already doing 10 people’s work with 5 members of staff will be asked to do more with even less. The Council’s need to decide what they are able to deliver with the staff and resources they have and stop making employees work themselves sick trying to deliver unobtainable results.
I see staff taking work home every evening and weekend, coming into work frazzled and these are the people asked to make important decisions about other people’s lives.
Council’s need to support staff when they are ill and stop making them scapegoats.
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Welcome to the ‘real’ world Jennifer. Private Sectory way back in the late 70′s and 80′s cut down to the bare bone, you had to take on two other peoples work because they had been made redundant. Councils have managed to increase their staffing rates, not because of more work, but because of the Union attitude of ‘not my job’, the non-jobs introduced and the over employment within areas where there should have been cut backs.
How people can sit all day long and do nothing is mindblowing. It is harder to look busy, than it is to busy.
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Totally agree, but it’s also the same with all other jobs who are under pressure and strains due to cut back. Stress, Depression and other Mental Health illness are on the increase.
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People within the Council are more exposed to job losses than the private sector which probably explains why a lot of them go off with stress but I do think that for a long time council workers have led a very ‘relaxed’ working style when compared to the private sector.
I think the gap needs to be bridged a lot more than it is now.
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“People within the Council are more exposed to job losses than the private sector”
Events of the last three years clearly passed you by!
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Thanks Andrew (number 1 comment)for your truly distinctly unknowledgeable contribution. It’s interesting that you seem to tarnish all Council workers with the same brush. You then relate the sickness to lazy council workers although the newspaper report actually relates the reasons being stress, depression and mental health issues.
As for the job cuts they will only add to the pressure on the remaining council staff. Added to that job cuts are job cuts mate meaning more people on the dole, which in turn will increase the cost to the hard earned tax payers money.
I do sincerely hope that you or your family never suffer from stress, depression or mental health related work issues. Because if you do then I doubt whether you will be so quick to judge in future.
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Kevin, you obviously work for the council.
Should you not be working and not online on the express and star.
On another note, I don’t believe that all those sick days are covered by stress, I work for a company, an no one has gone off with stress here, and believe me, and we have reasons to be stressed.
Oh well hopefully you won’t be one of the cuts.
Good job to the cuts, I say save us Tax payers money!!!!
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“no one has gone off with stress here,”
Does seem to imply that you are on the same website while you are at work?
Lets hope your company does not rely on Public sector contracts.
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if you notice Louise he posted his comment at 1.30pm – could he not be on his lunch?? which by the way he is legally entitled to and doesnt get paid for
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Some of them even have their posts made redundant while they’re absent with long-term life-threatening heart conditons, or so I’ve heard.
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11.4 days average!!
These people should work in the private sector, that kind of sickness record would lead to dismissal.
Plus I’ve yet to meet a council worker that is ever held or wants to be accountable for their job, so how they get stressed is beyond me.
No 2 – its bleeding hearts like you that typify the council workers attitude. If people over-worked,underpaid- they leave and get another job, oh I forgot – they wouldnt want to leave the council and enter the real world would they?
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mister_dj – may I ask how those people in the public sector, trained and skilled in specific areas of work that only exist in the public sector, are supposed to leave their jobs and go to the private sector where no equivalent exists? Re-training and career change are not options at present due to the overall employment environment.
I object to being called a ‘bleeding heart’ – I am giving you an accurate picture of what goes on. Do I presume correctly that you have not worked in the public sector?
Should it be right that the private sector sacks you for being ill? I don’t think so – it is not that the public sector is overly generous but that the private sector is overly mean? Should you be sacked for being in a car accident and in hospital for weeks? Should you be sacked for having a breakdown? Should you be sacked for genuinely being ill? I don’t think you should – maybe this is a fundamental difference in our belief systems.
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theres a difference from being genuinely sick or throwing a shoe there are a lot of public sector workers who treat sick days as extra holiday days stop sick pay and watch the days off reduce
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No wonder council staff are of with stress with comments such as Andrew has made. Obviousley he knows very little of what actually goes on in local councils.
Also remember that council workers pay rates etc to the Local Authority and their cash is just as hard earned.
Yes before you ask I work for a local council and we have to justify our sickness on return to work rather more I imagine than the private sector. Also Andrew you have only the “facts” as printed by a council hostile press, you know the saying about statistics they can be altered to suit a specific purpose
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dinner time or off sick or at work playing on the computer
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Call me a sour faced moose, but I have no sympathy for some of these people. A lot of people use these “illnesses” as a way of milking us. Full sick pay etc, reduced duties if they go back. There are a few genuine suffers and I don’t want to tar everyone with the same brush. My company is cutting back to the bone, I’m working extremely hard, but i’m just glad i’ve got a job, I too get full sick pay, but wouldn’t take advantage. My hubby on the otherhand doesn’t get sick pay, so on matter how stressed, depressed or gangrenous he gets, he will still go to work to pay the bills!
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Absolutely! It’s hard working people like you who’s hard earned taxes have to pay for these. Malingerers. I fully understand your frustration. At least they’re off sick, as opposed to on the sick or dole. It seems that a hardworking few are getting worked to the bone to support an ever-increasing army of idle spongers!
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I think someone has forgotten the fact that anyone, private or council, will only be taken seriously and treated for stress and depression if they have actually been diagnosed by a Doctor. Its not actually something you have a day off here’n'there with.
Of course there will be the ‘knockers’ of council workers as we are easy targets always in the public eye and open to scrutiny, unlike our counterparts in the private sector.
Frontline staff have a lot to put with, abuse beyond recognition by members of the public, a Police Officer wouldn’t out up with some of the abuse i’ve seen my colleagues have to smile and put up with because they are afraid of losing their jobs.
I think we should all stop and think when speaking to anyone, we are real people, feelings n all.
Merry Christmas to you all anyway, and i hope all your important services are delivered ontime and with a huge smile by all :-D
Merry Christmas
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Stress and Depression, like back ache, hard to prove that the illness isn’t there.
Maybe the cutbacks at these Councils need to be in the none-jobs, ie. office administration where two/three people job share, flexi time another con. You name it the Unions in the Public Sector know how to make life easy for these workers.
Time to say to any worker, six days a year off sick, after that lower salary, and long term sick you take an insurance out to cover.
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re:”Council staff in shock sickness rate”
Which part am I supposed to be shocked by?
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I work for Sandwell council and I’m hardly ever off sick (6 days over a 3 year period). I object to being accused of being a work shy sicknote!!! I’ve worked in the public and private sector and can tell you there is no difference; you get lazy, skiving so and so’s wherever you work!!! You’ll always get the people who will try and swing it, council worker or elsewhere; it’s just a shame, people like me (and there are plenty in council work) who work and turn up everyday are subject to this abuse!!! By the way, this will put a smile on your cynical faces…my job is one of the many at risk…HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE BEST FOR 2011 :(
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Exactly. I work part time for another authority and i go to work even when i am ill. I work hard and for it get paid. Comparing my job to the private sector i actually would get (shock!) MORE in the private sector for doing the same thing. I, admittidly, had to (was told to by management) spend a couple of months (paid admittidly) away from work due to stress because i was temporarily unable to cope with the job, even though i really wanted to get back to work. my job is at risk because i they have me on reduced duties and they are unable to find another place/job for me due to the fact that money is tight.
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In all my years in the services i never saw a single person get “stressed” by their job.We couldn’t get to work fast enough to get our jets in the air and down again safely. There were instances where bullying caused problems but not by the task itself. If people are getting stressed simply doing their job then they are not capable of doing that job. The recruiters were duped at the interview or the person applied for and got the job they are not fully capable of performing.
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to military rtd so you never met an infantryman who was stressed.strange that.
viet vet rtd
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Depends what you mean by Stress !
If it’s genuine Stress then Do not mock – it’s a serious illness.However you do not have Stress for short periods – it’s like having a day or so off for Flu – if you have real flu – then thats different.That takes longer than 2 days to get over.
However we’re all stressed today by the current ecomomic situation – but keep on working – that’s the only way ou of it.You have less stress by a regular wage coming in. Yes people these days take the easy option and do not work and take time off for whatever reasons it’s a culture that’s grown up in this country.Unfortunately it’s the minority who spoil the situation for us all.
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I think people need to see the bigger picture here. It suits the current government that public and private sector workers should fight for the crumbs of employment – while our cabinet of millionaires feather their own nests. Yes there are hard-workers and skivers in both public and private sector. And yes there’s fat in the public sector no one denies it needs to be trimmed
But here is what will happen – lots of public sector workers suddenly flood the labour market ( contrary to propaganda – a lot of highly skilled hard working people with good sick records)
Demand outstrips supply – not only will unemployment go up – but with such a large pool of skilled unemployed people available – wages will plummet
And all those employment rights you take for granted ( i.e -expecting to return to your job if you a have a baby – will be sailing down the Swanny) _ wise up – stop the petty squabbling – we are in it together – not them – I will be very surprised if E&S publish this !
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