ALTHOUGH overall sickness-related absence among staff in the Council during the year of furlough, working from home and the Covid-19 pandemic is the “lowest absence for quite a number of years”, concerns have been raised about the level of staff currently off sick with stress and depression-related conditions.
During a recent meeting of the Policy and Resources Committee, it emerged conditions such as theses accounted for almost half of all sickness absence in the 2020/2021 year which, one member described as “alarming”.
Director of Corporate Services and Governance, Celine McCarten, provided an annual report on staff sickness absence figures, which excluded Covid-19 issues, as previously agreed.
Average days lost due to sickness absence per employee was just under 10, compared to almost 14 the previous year.
The figure for employees with no absence was 57.76 per cent, up from 48 per cent in 2019/20.
As the Council is committed to the Equality Commission Mental Health Charter, Ms McCarten advised a wide range of services to support the mental health and wellbeing of all employees are in place.
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