Issue - meetings

At this point Councillor Smith excused himself from the meeting and left.

The System and Business Improvement Business Partner introduced the quarterly report as circulated with the agenda.  Whilst this was a standard report, previous comments from the committee had been taken on board and graphics had been added, which he hoped made it easier to identify trends.

Sickness absence (3.2) which was 2.48 days lost, though the actual days lost was slightly less than the same period last year.  It was noted that employee numbers had reduced, thus making the average days lost per full time employee (fte) higher.

If this principle was used to predict the rest of the year, it would result in 9.5 days per fte.

Musculo-skeletal remained the main reason for absence, though some significant improvements had been achieved following changes to procedures at the depot.

The following responses were given to questions from members of the committee;

• The reason for absence cited as ‘other’ included various things from eczema to cancer-related illness.  A breakdown could be provided outside of the meeting, but often there were few practical measures that could be taken to address this.
• The trend for absence due to stress was down and falling.  It was monitored closely, as well as the number of employees accessing the counselling service.  It was important to note that it was not always work related and was hard to separate given that it was often the result of more than one factor. The number of employees absent for more than 6 weeks with stress had peaked at 11 and was currently 4.

There were no further questions or comments from members of the committee.