Officials must ”get a grip” of sickness levels in a Perth and Kinross Council department.
Councillor Peter Barrett, who used to head up the housing and health committee, has called on the administration to bring absence in the housing and community care service under control.
In each of the last three recorded months April, May and June the rate of sickness absence was well over 6% and far above those of other departments.
Mr Barrett, who lost the committee convenership when his Liberal Democrat group failed to form a coalition with the SNP administration after the last election, said the average rate of three weeks a year off is due to unattainable targets being set for staff.
He said: ”The SNP refused to introduce much needed scrutiny of sickness management when I pressed them to do so at the last housing and health committee.
”Sickness levels are still well over 6%, which is unacceptable. There has to be regular, open and transparent scrutiny and oversight of sickness absence because the current system clearly isn’t working.”
Mr Barrett urged the administration to ”get a grip” of the issue and to start by setting realistic targets for reducing the level of absence.
He said ”The SNP with Conservative support set unachievable and unrealistic targets and then stuck their heads in the sand.
”They kicked the issue into the long grass and didn’t want to look at it again for another six months. Is it any wonder that sickness levels are still peaking as a consequence?”
He added: ”The administration need to get a grip of this. They need to focus on the parts of the service with the highest levels of absence and repeated short-term absence.
”The impact of increased workload falling upon the morale of staff who do aren’t going absent is a big concern.
”Other council service areas have managed to dramatically reduce sickness absence but, in contrast, the problem in housing and community care remains unchanged.”
The monthly level of days lost to sickness absence were: April, 6.37%, May, 6.63%, and June 6.21%. But the council said a better reflection is given on a month by month basis rather than the rolling 12 month figures. In that context, the figures were: April 3.98%, May 5.83% and June 5.17%.
Even in the latter case, the rates are higher sometimes by more than 2% than other services and higher than the full council average.
The current housing and health convener, Councillor Dave Doogan, said: ”Perth and Kinross Council takes sickness absence very seriously, and I’m pleased to say that levels of absence are reducing across the council, including within housing and community care.
”As a way of tackling the rising number of sickness absences, ongoing maximising attendance training for managers and staff has been put in place and has delivered consistent management of sickness absence and in time these improvements will be reflected fully in the data.
”A presentation to the scrutiny committee in June publicly detailed our actions in this regard and I am confident that we are looking at an improving trend despite the often physically demanding and stressful roles undertaken in support of our service users.
”As convener of this service, I understand that improvements in attendance are achieved by working with any employee with attendance issues to resolve the underlying cause, to the benefit both of the employee and the council.”