Cost of public sector sick leave detailed

SICK LEAVE taken by staff in the Department of Social Protection cost over €9 million last year, it emerged last night.

Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton told the Dáil that in the first three months of this year sick leave had cost a further €3.1 million.

Details of the cost of sick leave in various departments emerged as the Labour Court began a hearing on Government proposals to effectively halve sick leave entitlements for staff across the public service.

Ms Burton said that 71,680 working days out of a total of 1.138 million were lost last year due to sick leave – a rate of 6.3 per cent.

She said in a reply to a parliamentary question tabled by Simon Harris of Fine Gael that in the first three months of 2012 there were just over 25,000 days lost due to sick leave absences – a rate of 6.8 per cent.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said there were 18,700 sick days taken by staff – a rate of 3.5 per cent – at a cost of €3 million. He said up to May 2012 a total of 7,789 sick days had been taken at a cost of €1.2 million.

The Minister for Enterprise and Jobs Richard Bruton told the Dáil that a total of 9,723 sick days were taken by staff in his department last year at a cost of €1.398 million. “In the first quarter of 2012 staff of my department took a total of 2,454 person days sick leave at a cost of €394,358.”

Under the Government’s reform plan for sick leave, staff who are absent from work on foot of a doctor’s certificate would receive a maximum of three months on full pay and three further months on half pay.

Public service management has also sought to reduce maximum uncertified sick leave from seven to three days in a year.

Staff in the public service can currently receive full pay for certified sickness absence for up to six months in one year, and half pay thereafter, subject to a maximum of 12 months of paid sick leave in any period of four years.

Unions rejected the proposals in recent talks at the Labour Relations Commission.

The chairman of the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Shay Cody told the Labour Relations Commission the blanket reduction in sick leave arrangements proposed by management would do little to address any abuse of the system. However, he said it “would have a disastrous effect on those who suffer catastrophic and life-threatening illnesses, regardless of their previous sick leave record”.

He said comparisons between sick leave levels in the public and private sectors were not always reliable.