Sick leave in public service is twice the rate of private sector
Friday October 23 2009
The Government got further ammunition for its drive to cut €1.3bn off the public sector wage bill yesterday when a new report showed the cost of paying pensions will double in the next decade.
And there was another blow for public sector workers when it was revealed the average civil servant takes 11 sick days a year -- almost double the rate of absence in the private sector.
The report from the Comptroller and Auditor General emerged as the Government gets ready to slash €1.3bn from the public sector pay and pensions bill in December's Budget.
The report shows three out of five civil servants take leave and the direct cost of absenteeism is €64m. But the all-in cost to the country is reckoned to be double this amount.
Absenteeism
By contrast the latest survey of absenteeism in the private sector shows an average rate of just six days per employee.
Responding to the report, the Department of Finance pointed out that over 40pc of staff took no sick leave in 2007.
The department said an up-to-date and robust policy to manage sick leave was at an advanced stage of negotiation with the unions.
"This policy takes on board the concerns raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General, such as providing a general framework of guidelines on more efficient management of sick leave and a definition of long-term sick leave," the report said.
"The policy is also aimed at reducing absence from work, which should result in reductions in the cost of sick leave."
The report stressed legitimate sickness leave was a normal part of employment but insisted civil servant managers needed to intervene where it is "excessive and unwarranted".
The average woman working in state departments was absent 14 days, while the average man was off for eight days. Stating that a 5pc cut in sick leave would save the state at least €3.2m, the C&AG urged the civil service to start monitoring absences and comparing them with other departments.
But the C&AG also revealed the dramatic escalation in meeting the cost of the public sector pension bill.
The cost of paying public sector pensions is €2.4bn this year. This will increase to €4.4bn by 2018 and €14.7bn in 2058. Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Finance Minister Brian Lenihan indicated to union leaders this week that they were looking to cut the public sector wage bill by almost 7pc, or €1.3bn.
Opposition
The Government has repeatedly signalled that it intended to cut wages right across the board in the public sector in the Budget, despite workers' opposition to the pension levy earlier this year.
The last time a similar review was carried out, more than 20 years ago in 1986, the average sick leave for a civil servant was just over seven-and-a-half days a year. In 2007, the average was more than 11 days, but this rose to 16 days among clerical officers -- three-quarters of whom took sick leave that year.
Labour's social and family affairs spokeswoman Roisin Shortall described as remarkable the massive variance in absenteeism rates between state and government departments.
"This would suggest that there are particular problems, among particular groups of people that need to be tackled and that in some departments and agencies there is a culture of absenteeism where the system is abused," she said.
The investigation found the highest levels of sick leave were in the State Laboratory (77pc of employees had taken absence); the Property Registration Authority (76pc); the Department of Social and Family Affairs (69pc); the Public Appointments Service (67pc); the Central Statistics Office (67pc); the Chief State Solicitor's Office (66pc); and the Director of Public Prosecutions (65pc).
Among the lower rates were the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism (42pc); the Taoiseach's office (43pc); Office of Public Works (44pc); and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (45pc).
Ms Shortall said the records of some departments were "simply unacceptable".
"I do not think that public servants should be scapegoated for our current economic problems," she said.
"However, there is a need for the public service to show leadership in making economies and this is one such area."
- Fionnan Sheahan and Brian Hutton
Irish Independent
