Number of Perth and Kinross Council employee sick days rises to above pre-pandemic levels

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Sickness absences have risen amongst Perth and Kinross Council employees to above pre-pandemic levels.One councillor suggested it may be due to a societal shift where before COVID some ill workers pushed through but now stay home to avoid passing on germs.While PKC has said it will continue supporting employees absent through ill health it will also seek to improve its absence figures which impact the council's productivity.PKC's Annual Performance Report 2022/23 showed a decline in performance due to sickness absence levels increasing.The average number of days taken for absence for non-teaching employees rose from eight in 2020/21 to 11 in 2021/22 and 13 in 2022/23.

For teachers, it has more than doubled from an average of four days in 2020/21 to almost nine in 2022/23.The paper went before two committees last week.Presenting the report to PKC's Scrutiny and Performance Committee on June 7, PKC's chief operating officer Karen Donaldson said: "Management continue to support staff who are absent through ill health and there are a range of support measures: occupational health, counselling, supports for financial wellbeing, mental health, healthy eating to name but a few."And this will be an area of focus for looking at improvements in the forthcoming year."We don't yet have the comparative information for other local authorities but it is generally understood that there is a wider societal increase in ill health figures."And it's important to remember that behind the headline numbers are our people - many of whom are experiencing challenging physical and mental health problems and the underlying causes for these can be complex and varied."So as we seek to reduce the incidence of sickness absence from work, it's important