The chief executive of Derry City Council says she believes the organisation has reached a "turning point" in tackling its poor absenteeism rates.
The latest Local Government Auditors Report into absenteeism in councils across the North reveals that the average absenteeism rate for Derry City Council employees in 2007/08 was 18.89 days - that's an increase of 0.8 days on the previous year's fig
ure.
Council CEO Valerie Watts says that, while the figure is "unacceptable", she expects next year's results to be much better.
She said: "When I joined the organisation in October 2008, I indicated that improvements in attendance was a priority.
"While the figures reported for the 2007/08 are unacceptable, there has been significant progress made since April 2008 with a high expectation that 2008/9 will record the lowest record of absenteeism for Derry City Council," Mrs Watts added.
Derry City Council's head of human resources Sinead McGlone added that the amount of money lost through absenteeism has fallen sharply in recent months.
"The direct cost of absence to the organisation in wages is £290,036 for the first six months of 2008/09 - a decrease of 13.5%. It is also encouraging that 56% of employees have full attendance and also to date the number of days lost through sickness has decreased by almost 1,000 days," she said.
The full article contains 251 words and appears in Journal Friday DER Edition newspaper.
