Council staff sickness still worrying

OLDHAM Council must do more to clamp down on staff sick days, says the borough’s Lib-Dem leader.

Councillor Howard Sykes has written to the council’s chief executive Carolyn Wilkins to say he is “exceptionally concerned” at the level of sickness absences among council staff.

But the ruling Labour group say there has been close to a 30 per cent drop in sick leave from 2010/11 to 2013/14 thanks to the introduction of incentives and initiatives.

Over the last year, 19,059 days of absences were recorded for 3,560 council staff — an average of almost 5.5 days each - higher than the UK average of around 4.4 days a year.

In his letter, Councillor Sykes says “Not only does this in turn mean lost productivity, a reduction in service, and further undue pressure on those conscientious and hard-working staff who remain at their posts, but this situation costs the authority a double financial whammy — paying these staff to stay at home while employing agency staff to provide cover at a cost of £3.85 million a year

“I know Oldham’s figures have dropped, but we are still higher than average.”

To make progress with the issue, Councillor Sykes has requested a meeting with Ms Wilkins to see what measures can be put into place to reduce sickness absence.