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Burnley Council staff each take a week off sick in six months
3:50pm Sunday 29th November 2009
SWINE flu could be to blame for leaving Burnley Council struggling to meet its targets on town hall sickness absences.
Just days after it was revealed that medical staff in East Lancashire, including those at Burnley General and Pendle Community hospitals, were taking nearly 96,000 sick days, the picture for civil servants is similarly bleak.
The 570 council staff have so far notched up 4.76 days per employee as sick leave - against an annual target of 8.3 days - in the first six months of the financial year.
Even if the authority can keep the figure below nine days it will be regarded as an ‘improvement’, according to personnel director Heather Brennan.
The average number of sick days per council worker for 2006-07 was just over 11, falling to 10.4 for 2007-08.
Latest figures show 29 people were short-term absentees, since April, with cases of swine flu, or suspected infections.
Suffering from stress, anxiety and depression remains the largest single cause of longer periods away from work.
Mrs Brennan said in a report to the council’s better services scrutiny committee: “Short-term absence is continuing to persist at higher levels than seen in 2007 and 2008, which is challenging our sickness absence target for the year.”
The worst offenders include the markets and chief executive’s department, closely followed by customers services workers and leisure staff.
During the past two years housing and neighbourhood teams have had the highest overall rates for long and short-term sickness absences.
She has called upon the personnel section to investigate whether the swine flu epidemic has had a noticeable effect on the statistics.
Service heads have also been urged to ensure sickness absence reviews are properly conducted and contact is maintained with staff off with long-term conditions.
East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, which had 70 per cent more sick days recorded than its target, is employing counsellors for stressed-out staff.
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Your Say YourLancashire
Old Timer, Burnley says...
5:07pm Sun 29 Nov 09
....
1. "Suffering from stress, anxiety and depression remains the largest single cause of longer periods away from work"............ ....
*..Surely there is something wrong here with people staying off work with anxiety and depression and it should be looked into with questions asked down from the Chief Executive to heads of departments as to why people are off with such problems..... ......
2. "The worst offenders include the markets and chief executive’s department, closely followed by customers services workers and leisure staff "..........
*offenders"....since when is it an offence to be ill? Are those the words from the council or the LT reporter. I think we should be told.
Let's not get back to the bad old days when workers become scared of staying off through illness and go into work and infect others. That is what happens when people who are genuinely sick and become frightened of taking a only few days off. The crafty ones go to the doctor and get a couple of weeks away from work resulting in a severe shortage of staff..
jcb, darwen says...
6:31pm Sun 29 Nov 09
Totally, Blackburn says...
7:17pm Sun 29 Nov 09
Harsh policies to stop the shirkers will hurt more innocent people than guilty. I know of three people sacked from another council over recent months - all of whom are genuinely ill and were only receiving half-pay from work anyway. Sacking them is not going to stop the lazy ones from having a lie-in on a Monday morning.
midas, burnley says...
9:33am Mon 30 Nov 09
Byanothername, Burnley says...
10:25pm Mon 30 Nov 09
Byanothername, Burnley says...
10:26pm Mon 30 Nov 09
SICKNESS:Blackburn Town Hall
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Mikeee47, Padiham says...
4:46pm Sun 29 Nov 09
Not many companys have a full sick pay scheme anymore, so why the councils , I begrude paying them out of my Council tax, let them claim off the state like the rest of us, for the paltry pittence they pay.
I know a few people who work for the Council & it's system get abused