Guernsey Press

States staff take more time off sick

STAFF sickness cost the States £1.2m. during the first three months of this year.

Published

The figure, which represents a 'lost time' percentage of 3.6% of total staff working days available, was released following a request by the Guernsey Press.

An independent report by the National Audit Office in 2005 showed the cost of staff sickness for the whole of that year was £6.1m. – a loss of 3.8% of working time – and it recommended the States unified its absence policies and recording methods.

Current figures for this year show little improvement has been made to the bottom line since 2005.

While the Policy Council was not able to provide similar figures for previous years to show how things had progressed since the NAO report, it confirmed that staff sickness was a 'focus area' for delivering 'financial benefit'.

Focus HR Solutions director Katie Vidamour said the percentage of time lost to absenteeism in the private sector was about 2.5%.

'The clients we work with are mostly office-based. However, the States has a much wider workforce and we would expect to see higher levels of absence within roles that have a physical nature as some illnesses/ailments might not prevent someone from, for example, working at a desk, but would prevent them from doing physical work or working in an area whereby staff with ill health are not permitted, e.g. the hospital.'

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