Sick day pay outs are costing Sussex council's millions

4:10pm Saturday 20th February 2010

By Rebecca Evans

Millions of pounds a year are being spent on pay for sick council staff in Sussex.

At a time when local authorities are having to cut back on spending to balance their budgets, figures compiled by The Argus reveal more than £20 million a year is going on pay for employee absences.

That figure would swell further if figures for West Sussex County Council - the largest local authority in Sussex - were added.

Last night it could not say how much it spent on sick pay nor how many days off staff took through illness.

Lewes District Council had the highest rate of illness, with staff taking an average of more than 14 days off sick a year - up from 10.45 a year earlier - at a cost of £580,000 to the authority.

She said: “The important thing from our point of view is that because we have so few staff, less than 500, if we have just one or two people that are terminally ill, and we do, then that does skew the figures quite drastically.”

Sick pay was calculated using the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) figures on the average cost to the public sector.

The CIPD said the average public sector employee takes 9.7 days a year off sick at a cost of £784.

East Sussex County Council spent the most - £10.8 million last year - on sick leave, with its 17,000 staff taking an average 7.9 days off.

Brighton and Hove City Council - which is looking at cutting up to 100 jobs as well as reducing spending on social care and children’s services - spent more than £5.5 million at a rate of 9.75 days for each of its 7,000 staff.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokeswoman said: “We are working hard to reduce levels of absence.

“We are working closely with staff and trade unions on a number of initiatives and we would expect to see further improvements next year.”

Mid Sussex District Council was the best performing with an average of just 5.9 days sick for each of its 372 employees.

Eastbourne Borough Council is also in the top quarter of councils nationally, with an average of 6.5 days.

Ken Stevens, the regional organiser for the Eastbourne, Lewes and Wealden branch of the Federation of Small Businesses, said that the public sector sick rate would be “ruinous” to private firms.

Mr Stevens said: “Generally employees of small businesses are more likely to work through illness than those in the public sector.

“The survival of their jobs is dependent on that business being in place. There is a lesson there.”