Concerns have been raised over rising staff absence rates at East Renfrewshire Council.
Figures show an average of 12.33 sick days per council employee [full-time equivalent] in 2021/22, increasing from 10.16 days in 2020/21.
For teachers, sick days rose to 4.14 days per FTE in the last financial year compared to 3.61 days in 2020/21, a report to the council’s audit and scrutiny committee revealed.
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Cllr Gordon Wallace, Conservative, said every time staff absence figures are reviewed “we always put forward excuses as to why this is happening”.
“Yet over that period of time we don’t seem to be seeing any improvement, I would question as to whether this is a cultural thing, why is it?”.
Cllr Wallace, who asked how much absenteeism is costing the council, added: “I just feel that we seem to year on year be making excuses without actually getting to the bottom of what the problems are and what we can do to tackle it.”
However, Cllr Tony Buchanan, SNP, the former council leader, accused Cllr Wallace of “attacks” on staff for being ill. “I think our staff do a fantastic job in very difficult circumstances as does anyone who works across the public sector,” he added.
The absence report, presented to a recent meeting of the council’s audit and scrutiny committee, did state the figures have “improved compared with pre-covid figures in 2019/20 with a decrease of 0.67 days [council employees] and 1.06 days [teachers] respectively”.
“In 2020/21 there was a significant decrease in absence due to lockdowns and the high numbers of employees working from home,” the report added.
The top three reasons for absence were: non-worked related stress, musculoskeletal including back pain and gastrointestinal disorders.
A council official added: “We have seen over the last 12 month some really complex difficult matters that our staff have been going through in terms of serious health conditions, social economic issues, substance abuse and personal tragedies. Support has been provided to ensure cases are managed correctly and in line with policy.”
Her report stated that covid absence in 20/21 was not counted as part of the sickness absence therefore “it was expected that absence would be higher in 21/22 considering the number of employees affected by Covid-19”.
The official said analysis shows staff who carry out “frontline services” have “got higher levels of absence”. “HR do continue to have meetings with managers in hotspot areas to support them,” she added.
Cllr Wallace said: “When I think of the council tax payers out there, the people who are actually paying for this absenteeism, I’m really asking on their behalf as to why it’s a particular problem in East Renfrewshire or indeed the public sector.”
The official highlighted part of the report which stated absence is “consistently higher within the public sector in comparison to the private sector and has been consistently since 1995”.
“The Office of National Statistics confirms that this can be attributed to the differences in job roles and that within the private sector it is more likely that employees will not be paid occupational sick pay in comparison to public sector workers”.
She added East Renfrewshire has an “ageing workforce” which “can attribute to the absence levels”. However, Cllr Wallace said: “My particular trade that I’m in, the average age of a butcher is actually about 59. I can tell you now there is no absenteeism that reflects anything like this, in a very hard physical job.”
The official agreed to report the cost of staff absences to a future meeting of the committee. Cllr Paul Edlin, Conservative, also said he had “concerns that the absence level at the council may be higher than we would like it to be”.
However, Cllr Buchanan said: “It’s good to see that some things never change and we still face the usual attacks on our staff for having been off sick. Indeed, complaints about them actually being paid while they are off sick.
“Given the work that our staff have done, particularly through the pandemic, still delivering services, then I think the figures don’t actually look too bad."
Benchmarking data for 2021/22, comparing East Renfrewshire to other councils, will be available in “the latter half of the financial year”.
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