Derry and Strabane council bucks the trend with sharp fall in sickness absenteeism among workers

A new Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) report on managing attendance at central and local government level shows 12.3 days were lost per employee due to sickness at DC&SDC in 2018/19.

This was a significant reduction on the 17 days per employee that were lost in 2015/16 when the local council had the worst absenteeism rate of any local authority in the six counties.

In 2018/19 only Fermanagh and Omagh (10.4 days per employee) had a better rate.

The rate of sickness absence in Derry and Strabane was below the average number of staff days lost across all councils (13.9).

Indeed it was closer to the average rate in Scotland (11.4 days per employee) where the problem is less severe.

Auditor General, Kieran Donnelly revealed that Derry and Strabane had bucked an overall trend that showed absenteeism at local councils had increased by 13 per cent between 2014/15 and 2018/19.

He said: “High levels of sickness absence within the public sector are not a new phenomenon.

“However, this report finds few signs of sustained improvement.

“It is time for public sector organisations to make a concerted effort to reduce the level of sickness absence and to develop a consistent approach to managing attendance.”