Departmental Staff Sick Leave

Thursday, 3 July 2014

Questions (87)

Barry Cowen

Question:

87. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will outline in tabular form the total number of sick days taken by staff in his Department in 2011, 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014 further broken down by uncertified, certified and long-term absence leave. [28834/14]

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Written answers

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform

I wish first to assure the Deputy that the management of sick leave is taken most seriously in my Department.

Sick leave absences and any patterns emerging are monitored and analysed and, as per the guidelines set out in Circular 06/2014 - Arrangements for Paid Sick Leave local managers are supported by the HR Strategy Unit to ensure that sick leave review meetings and resumption of work meetings are held with staff as appropriate. It should also be noted that all long-term sick leave cases, i.e. absences greater than four weeks, are automatically referred to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for advice on how to proceed with the management of those cases. The services of the Employee Assistance Service are also available to all staff in my Department to assist them with any medical (or related issues) for which they may require support.

In terms of the data presented below, the Deputy will be aware that my Department was only formally established on 6 July 2011, and the sick leave statistics are therefore presented for the subsequent months of that year. In addition, it is important to recognise that as part of the rollout of our essential reform agenda, my Department numbers now include staff in the Shared Services Offices (PeoplePoint and Payroll Shared Services) as well as the Office of Government Procurement.

The table below is based on the latest information available from the Human Resource Managment System

	2011 - (Aug-Dec)	2012	2013	2014 - (to 30 June)
Self-certified Sick Leave
DPER Policy	60	137.87	128.5	96.2
Shared Services Offices	-	-	195.35	268.8
Office of Gov't Procurement	-	-	-	6.67
Certified Sick Leave (> 28 days)
DPER Policy	370	603.06	994.41	250
Shared Services Offices	-	-	687	1530
Office of Gov't Procurement	-	-	-	152
Certified Sick Leave (< 28 days)
DPER Policy	231.31	639.59	884.66	381.32
Shared Services Offices	-	-	655	1144.93
Office of Gov't Procurement	-	-	-	74.92
Total Certified Sick Leave
DPER Policy	601.31	1242.65	1879.07	631.32
Shared Services Offices	-	-	1342	2674.93
Office of Gov't Procurement	-	-	-	226.92
Total Sick Leave
DPER Policy	661.31	1380.52	2007.57	727.52
Shared Services Offices	-	-	1537.35	1982.62
Office Gov't Procurement	-	-	-	233.59
Grand Total	661.31	1380.52	3544.92	2943.73