Thousands of days lost to sickies at West Midlands councils
Thousands of days of work are being lost at the region's councils due to staff calling in sick – including workers complaining of stress – figures have shown.
Staff at Dudley Council took more than 72,000 sick days between April and December last year, while staff at Wolverhampton City Council took an average of seven sick days during the same period, a total of 41,000.
In Walsall, more than 9,000 working days were lost through employees being off work with stress, depression, mental health and fatigue syndrome between April 2012 and the end of January 2013. Dudley councillor Gaye Partridge, cabinet member for human resources, law and governance, insisted the council had a "robust" approach to managing the sickness rates.
One in every five sick days taken by Dudley Council workers was put down to stress or mental health issues.
Sandwell Council workers took 8,316 days off citing stress, depression and mental health during the year 2011/12 and, down by about 3,500 from two years earlier. The council defended the sickness records of employees, with councillor Mahboob Hussain, deputy leader and cabinet member for service improvement, saying: "These are very difficult times for council staff coping with £60 million worth of Government cuts to our budgets over the past three years."
He said the council had reduced the number of workers taking sick days through a sickness referral scheme, confidential staff counselling service, flexible working arrangements and compassionate leave. At Staffordshire County Council the average employee took 7.67 sick days between the beginning of March last year and the end of February this year. Of these, 1.51 days were attributed to "psychological absence", including stress.
A statement issued with their response to the Freedom of Information Request said: "The council has in place policies and services to support the mental health of our workforce. Occupational health and staff counselling services in place to support employees to remain in work or return to work quickly." At South Staffordshire Council, the average full-time employee took 5.73 days off for sickness in 2011/12.
In Sandwell, just over 41,000 days were missed because of absence in 2011/12.
