Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Rise in Civil Service sick leave blamed on bosses
Absentee rates soar to 5-year high Union hits out at ‘stress in workplace’
ONE of Northern Ireland’s top unions has blamed Civil Service bosses for the rise in sick leave.
Nipsa said it is “placing the full responsibility at the door” of managers after it was revealed the rate leapt to an average of 12.4 days per member of staff.
The level had increased from 11.7 in the last 12 months to a five-year high.
The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency also found 49.5% of workers had no days off in 2016/2017.
However, one in eight had at least a spell of prolonged ill health lasting around three months.
The agency said: “This was the highest level of long-term absence observed in the last five years, and accounted for more than three-quarters of all working days lost. Anxiety/stress/depression/ other psychiatric illnesses was the absence reason that accounted for the greatest proportion of working days lost (35.2%).
“Within this category, work-related stress accounted for a third of the days.” Nipsa’s Bumper Graham claimed attempts to address sickness levels had been rebuffed by bosses.
He said: “After last year’s report we raised with NICS management the need to do more to address in particular the level of illness due to anxiety/stress/ depression and psychiatric illness.
“We offered to work jointly to see what could be done – in response we got not only a brush-off but were told all that could be done was being done.
“This is not the case. Management continue to make cuts, attack terms and conditions, change how people work and pile on more pressure whilst failing to address the root cause of the problem.”
Mr Graham called on bosses to engage with the union to improve the working environment.
He added: “It is time to stop this annual ritual of a witch hunt against civil servants and for the Civil Service and others to understand economic and workplace pressures are the cause with the resultant adverse impact on health.”