Statement on sickness absence from Councillor David Kirkham

The Cabinet meeting scheduled for Monday, July 10 includes a report from the Business Improvement Board. A draft of the Business Improvement Board’s annual report is included and this contains some statements made by the County Council in response to the Board’s findings on sickness absence. In particular, the response drafted by the Council included inaccurate references to the negotiation of reductions in sick pay and the tightening up of trigger levels.

I am pleased to say that the Council has reached an agreement with the trade unions to work jointly on examining ways of reducing sickness absence. This will include doing more work on looking at the underlying causes of absence. It will also look at how we as an organisation can provide better support to our employees, who we recognise do an excellent job in sometimes difficult circumstances. In the light of that agreement to work jointly, we have given a clear and absolute commitment that changes in sick pay and trigger levels are not on the agenda.

Reaching this agreement with the trade unions is a major step forward in our efforts to tackle absence management, which remains our top priority in terms of improving the Council’s performance and the health and wellbeing of our employees. It is therefore unfortunate that the Council’s response to the Business Improvement Board is misleading and I apologise for any confusion this may have caused.

It has also been drawn to my attention that a statement in the Board’s findings based on information provided by the County Council could imply that we do not believe that all absence is genuine. I wish to make it absolutely clear that this is not the case and does not reflect the Council’s approach. I regret that this information does not reflect the genuine concern we have about our employee’s welfare. I believe that our preferred way forward of working jointly with the trades unions, taking a more holistic approach that also considers and addresses the underlying causes of absence, provides a more sustainable way forward.