(1617) Almost evening all.

 

15. Moo corner

14. 2039

13. Always it’s the young women

… who hobnob with the enemies of their families.

12. These terrible folk on the right

11. TPA newsletter

While someone working in the private sector will take an average of four days off each year through sick leave, new TPA research has found that for people working in local councils, the number more than doubles to 10! Even compared to the wider public sector, council employees take 30 per cent more time off through illness.

Sickness absence is costing councils around £667 million every year, meaning taxpayers are losing around £3 million per working day. Figures suggest that mental health now accounts for over one quarter of all local authority sickness absence. Council staff are invoking mental health as a reason for sickness absence at more than three times the national level, at a cost of £176 million in a single year.

With a total of 9 million working days lost across a single year, town halls are missing out on the equivalent to 41,302 full time roles. For context, that’s the same size as the workforce at Wetherspoons. 

Fermanagh and Omagh reported the highest average of 18.6 days lost, while Glasgow Council clocked up an astonishing 1.32 million days lost in total over three years, the highest in the country. Fenland district council brags about its “happy and motivated workforce” but had the highest days lost due to mental health, making up more than half of their reported reasons for calling in sick.