Renfrewshire Council’s £10m Sick Note Bill

AN incredible £10million of taxpayers’ cash has been spent on sick pay at Renfrewshire Council in just 12 months.

The Paisley Daily Express can reveal the whopping sickness bill at a time when parents and pupils at the town’s South Primary fight plans to shut the school because it costs too much to run.

On average, each member of staff at the council takes 11 DAYS off work through sickness each year – at a cost to the taxpayer of more than £1,000 per employee.

Yesterday, one insider described the sick pay bill as “shocking”.

“This is an unbelievable amount of money. Whether those costs are met by central government or the council budget, it’s still taxpayers’ cash that is funding it.

“This is public money that could be put to good use elsewhere. If the council could even save half of this money, it would make a big difference.”

The council source said teachers are one of the biggest ‘contributors’ to the sickness bill because, when they are off ill, the costs of employing stand-in staff can quickly mount up.

“When teachers go off on the sick, they still get paid and the council also faces the extra costs of employing a replacement teacher,” added the insider.

“Stand-in teaching staff are expensive and, over the past year, employees in the education and leisure department have lost a total of 8,805 working days.”

A report to Renfrewshire’s Scrutiny and Petitions Board shows that sick pay costs an annual total of around £7.4million.

Once the costs of providing cover for staff, together with efficiency losses, are taken into account, the total bill for 2007/08 comes to approximately £10million.

On average, each of Renfrewshire’s 9,570 employees costs £1,045 a year through days lost.

This compares with averages of £663 and £906 in the private sector and public sector respectively.

The number of days lost by the average Renfrewshire Council worker – 11 – is also higher than for staff in the private sector and public sector in general, where the figures stand at 7.2 days and 9.8 days.

The most common reasons for council staff being off work were back pain, joint injuries and repetitive strain injuries, which covered around 25 per cent of cases, while psychological issues, such as stress, accounted for a further 20 per cent.

Workers in the education and leisure department are ‘top of the league’ in the council’s sick list with a total of 8,805 days lost, while social work staff have lost 6,617, environmental services employees recorded 4,473, housing and property were on 2,364 and planning and transport lost 772.

The highest per cent of days lost in departments is in social work, with the figure standing at 6.89 per cent.

Next in line is housing and property on 5.84 per cent, followed by planning and transport on 5.35 per cent, environmental services on 4.63 per cent and education and leisure on 4.58 per cent.

The council source added: “Teachers are on high grade pay so, when they are off sick, someone of the same level is brought in. The school pays the teacher’s sick pay and the council pays for their replacement.”

From March 30 to June 29 this year, the overall absence level at the council was 5.05 per cent, which is above the 4.8 per cent target.

A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said: “We have a positive and wide ranging programme in place to support attendance and help staff in resolving issues which may be causing absence.

“Our overall sickness absence level has fallen from 5.69% in 2006/07 to the most recent quarterly figure of 5 per cent.

“We offer options to refer employees to our occupational health service or counselling support. There’s partnership working with GPs to assist doctors, making them aware of the wide range of health-related services available to council employees.

“That includes health screening and health promotion initiatives”.