Cost of public sector sicknote culture hits £5.2bn a year as each worker takes off 9.8 days

Public sector workers take on average 9.8 days a year off sick, far higher than the private sector’s 7.4-day average, a report revealed yesterday.

Bosses estimated that 12 per cent of days off taken by public employees are falsely claimed ‘sickies’, many giving themselves Mondays and Fridays off to enjoy long weekends.

NHS staff took the most days off ill – 11.7 a year, according to the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development’s annual absence management study.

The £5.2billion cost to the taxpayer in the past year equates to £85 for every person in Britain.

The institute’s report, published yesterday, discovered that while average sick leave in the public sector has dropped from

last year’s figure of 10.3 days a year, the annual cost to the economy per member of staff has risen from £732 to £906.

As the 5.7million public workers have seen their wages rise, the bill for their sick leave is higher than it has ever been, the CIPD said.

And with six weeks’ holiday and eight bank holidays on top of nearly ten sick days, the average public servant gets nearly nine weeks off work every year.

Francis Maude, the shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, said: ‘Poor management must be to blame for the worrying levels of absenteeism.

‘More needs to be done to address these problems – not only to ensure that taxpayers’ money is properly spent, but also to promote the well-being and job satisfaction of public workers.’

Yesterday’s report found that the total cost to the economy last year of staff absence in both public and private sectors could be as much as £19.4billion.

That figure would soar even higher if indirect costs – such as poorer customer service – were added in, the report says.

There are more than 29million people in work in the UK and overall the average annual cost of their sick leave is £666 per head – up from £659 last year.

Across the workforce the average level of employee absence has reduced slightly to eight days a year from 8.4 days.

Explaining the difference in public and private sector illness rates, the CIPD said: ‘Public sector organisations are less likely to rely on disciplinary procedures to manage absence, they are less likely to restrict sick pay, and their occupational sick pay schemes tend to pay out for longer.’

The main causes given for short-term absence were stomach upsets, flu and colds.

But in the public sector ‘stress’ is listed as the main reason for workers taking time off. Sufferers blamed increased workload and the pressure to meet targets.

Bosses in all fields identified illness caused by drinking too much alcohol and taking drugs as a ‘particular problem’, especially among manual workers.

Susan Anderson, of the Confederation of British Industry, said: ‘People who awarded themselves sickies to enjoy the recent sunny weather or to extend a weekend away are acting unfairly, leaving their colleagues to pick up their work, and costing taxpayers and employers over a billion pounds a year.’