The Department of Education lost nearly 17,000 days to sick leave among staff members over the past two years with stress and work stress among the most common reasons cited.
There were 8,069 sick days taken by the department’s 1,500 full-time equivalent staff last year, according to records released by them.
Of those, 417 days were taken for “work stress” while 454 days were taken by employees suffering from other types of “stress”.
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Another 343 days were taken for pregnancy related illnesses and 324 by staff members who had been diagnosed with cancer.
There were only 147 sick leave days attributed to Covid-19 with 62 others for viral illnesses.
However, of the 8,069 days taken last year, 3,546 were categorised as “undisclosed” while for 443 days, the reasons were listed in a database as a “cert on file”.
Other sick days were taken for car accidents, fatigue, vertigo, with one day taken because of insomnia, according to details released under FOI.
The figures also show a stark difference in sick leave according to month with 22% of days taken across just two months, October and November 2021.
March and April had the lowest rates of sick leave with 518 and 532 days of sick leave taken respectively.
For 2020, the Department lost an even higher number of days to sick leave with 8,839, of which 2,351 were described as “undisclosed”.
Another 1,350 days were listed only as “cert on file” while the largest category of leave – or 523 days – related to a post-operative disability.
There were 471 days lost to stress, 391 to pregnancy-related illnesses, and 367 to “work stress”.
Other reasons for sick leave included post-natal depression, reaction to a bereavement, and staff members attending medical appointments.
The early part of 2020 showed a particularly high rate of absences with 1,489 days leave in January and 1,119 in February, just before the Covid-19 pandemic began.
In a statement, the Department said they worked closely with the office of the Chief Medical Officer to manage sick leave issues.
They said: “Staff also have access to the Civil Service Employee Assistance Service (CSEAS), which is an internal employee assistance service available designed to assist employees manage and resolve work-related and personal difficulties which, if left unattended, may adversely affect attendance, work performance and quality of life.
“The Department’s HR unit also runs various events to promote staff wellbeing.”
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