Crackdown on Plymouth council staff taking sick days
COUNCIL staff who are “taking the Mick” by taking too many sick days are facing a crackdown.
The average Plymouth council worker took nearly 10 days off sick in the year to last November, costing the taxpayer £2.25million, according to new figures revealed this week.
-
The figure is an improvement on 2010, when city workers each called in sick an average of 12.88 days.
But, in spite of promises to get better, council managers failed to get staff off their sickbeds for an average of 9.88 days – worse than the record in April.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013
Deputy leader Cllr Pete Smith told a scrutiny panel: “These figures are not acceptable.” He said department managers had been told to “use the procedures we have” to deal with “the ones who are taking the Mick and abusing the system”.
Cllr Smith was responding to a call by Conservative councillors to deal with the sickness rates, which worsened through 2012. Four departments showed particularly high rates of sickness.
Adult social care peaked at an annual average of 15.11 days in November last year. Democracy and Governance staff recorded an annual rate of 10.95 per cent up to November. Environmental services had its worst month last April, at 11.77 days and a low of 10.31 days in October. Children’s social care had a peak of 11.89 per cent, with every month above 10 per cent.
A 2010 survey by the Confederation of British Industry showed that private sector workers each took just 5.9 days off sick in the whole year.
Plymouth City Council has already begun its crackdown. Last year 2012, 40 staff faced “capability assessments”, Mark Grimley, the council’s assistant director for human resources told a budget scrutiny panel. As a result 13 were dismissed or retired. The council now has 24 cases where employees have been off for more than 100 days – a reduction from a high of more than 100.
“We have an older than average workforce than other local authorities, reflecting the location of Plymouth,” a council spokeswoman said. “This means that in areas such as environmental services and adult social care (domiciliary care) where there is a requirement for regular lifting, that we see an increased rate of muscular-skeletal issues.
“We also run services, such as school catering, meals on wheels and domiciliary care, where those with certain infections must remain out of the workplace to prevent spread. There is also an issue that we are not ducking about managers taking early action.”
The total cost of sickness absence was £2.25million up to December 2012 last year – about 3per cent of the total wage bill. This has fallen from £2.8million since December 2011.
Mr Grimley will take direct control of sickness cases in three key departments: adult social care, environmental service and children’s social care.
Managers will also be held to account and face disciplinary action if they fail to manage staff effectively.
Cllr Ian Bowyer (Con, Eggbuckland), a member of the scrutiny panel, said that performance had “flat-lined” during the year, going from an average of 9.7 per cent to 9.88 per cent.
He called for more information about the cost to the council.
Cllr David James (Con, Plympton St Mary) said: “We started getting absences down, but now it’s gradually creeping up again. Our target is six days. Absences put an extra load on other staff and cost the council a lot of money which could be better spent elsewhere.”
Comments
by mcspredder
Friday, January 11 2013, 9:22PM
“A lot of job contracts have 4 weeks sick leave built in, so it is to be expected that the perk would be taken advantage of.”
by tango221
Friday, January 11 2013, 8:56PM
“Oh this is precious, I can imagine that someone working for the Democracy and Governance Staff have such low self esteem they can barely get themselves out of bed at all.
The excuse that PCC runs meals on wheels and other catering explaining some of the absences is laughable, that's all that Starbucks, Mcdonalds, KFC, Gary Rhodes, and Costa do and they do not have PCC levels of. As for Adult Care and Environmental services causing muscular- skeletal problems, that is simply lazy people not following their training properly.
I would imagine PCC runs a nice little sick pay system and at least Uncle Joe Evans is fighting to have more money taken away from low paid private employees in the city to fund higher wages for these failures”
by DJANGO6421
Friday, January 11 2013, 7:15PM
“Like all civil so called civil servants be they local or national it matters not one iota to them as it is the long suffering general public who foot the bill every time, we are regarded as their personal cash cows to be milked dry.”
by PCCPCC
Friday, January 11 2013, 5:55PM
“It would be great if they were able to give a better break down of figures, how many days sick were lost to long term sick and how many were lost to short term.
Whether you work for the council or a private firm if you have an operation then you will have recovery time so you may be off sick.
if your a manual worker and and injure yourself you may not be able to do your job so you have to go sick.
yes some people will abuse the system but you will get that in all areas and in all professions.
on another note did anyone get that sickness bug over december and if yes did you still go into work. have you ever had an operation dkid you go into work straight after the operation or did you have some time of sick.
have a good night one and all”
by m_dalston
Friday, January 11 2013, 4:09PM
“You have never ran a business have you @josdave? A company the size of PCC has will have factored in the number of sick days taken by its employees (like any business does) and has employed enough staff to cope with the workload. If you bring down the average number of sick days you bring down the number of employees needed .. it isn't rocket science.”
by josdave
Friday, January 11 2013, 3:07PM
“While some may be taking too many sick days it's just scare mongering to say it cost £2.25million. That's rubbish as the work still gets done but is covered by the other workers. No new wage bill results so it doesn'e cost a penny.”
by kym1960
Friday, January 11 2013, 2:44PM
“i know off a manger who took 6 mouths off then his son used a council van at the weekend to move some stuff and crashed the van and council insurance stop on the Friday, and his son was sacked and he took 4 mouths off because off that .and my girl friend took 2 days off with sickness and was put on report ?”
by philofbudo
Friday, January 11 2013, 2:06PM
“There are many consciencious staff at PCC who will only take sick leave if they are genuinely sick. So, if the average is 10 days per year there must be many workers taking a lot more sick leave than this (obvious I know). I don't really want to make too many public sector/private sector comparisons, but I do think absences are followed up more in the private sector, mainly I guess because there are direct financial implications for those doing the following up (i.e. the bosses of private companies).
Ten days a year? I have taken fewer sick days than that in the last ten years put together!”
by prophetofdoom
Friday, January 11 2013, 11:59AM
“Excellent post by Glasshalffull. There is far more to this then just 'lazy staff'. The Council managers/HR need to look at Frederick Herzberg's motivation and hygiene factors and they'll see that there is a lot can be done to improve 'job enrichment' that doesn't involve spoending money. A lot is down to good man management.”
by fazer58
Friday, January 11 2013, 11:50AM
“I'm not sure why they think having an "older" workforce is relevant.I work in the private sector,for a company that penalizes genuine sickness quite openly no matter what evidence,Doctor's letters etc,and the older workers tend to have less time sick not more.”