Rise in number of sick days in both city and county councils

THE number of sick days taken by staff at both local authorities in Cork has risen in recent years.

Staff at Cork City Council took over 2,000 more sick days in 2022, when compared to the amount taken in 2021.

Information obtained from the local authority shows that Cork City Council’s workforce of 1,559 employees took 12,883 sick days in 2021.

The data also revealed that, while the number of staff remained the same, the number of sick days rose to 15,042 in 2022 — an average of 9.6 sick days per employee.

The figures show that the average number of sick days as a percentage of overall workdays in the city council rose from 3.15% to 3.95% between 2021 and 2022.

The number of sick days taken also rose last year in Cork County Council, according to information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Data from the county council revealed that its workforce of 2,162 staff members took a combined 17,789 sick days in 2022.

While the workforce did increase slightly to 2,186 in 2022, — so too did the number of sick days taken, at 20,323 an average of 9.3 sick days per employee.

The figures mean that the county council’s average number of sick days as a percentage of overall workdays rose from 3.35% to 3.77% between 2021 and 2022.

The most recent complete set of data, taken from 2018, showed that sick leave in the public service sector cost the Irish economy more than €380m.

The average sick leave rate was 4.2%, and the average number of working days lost was some 9.2 per full-time equivalent in the public service.

A spokesperson for Cork City Council said: “As a council, we will continue to robustly monitor sickness absence levels and will continue to engage with all employees when absent on sick leave to support them to return to work as soon as they are medically certified to do so.”