MORE time was taken off sick by staff working for Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council than at any other local authority in Wales, it has been revealed.

New figures have shown 12.7 days were lost per full time equivalent (FTE) role in the council in the 2018-2019 financial year.

This is more than a day more than in Bridgend, the next-worst performing council in Wales, where 11.9 days were lost, and is a 1.5 per cent increase on the previous year, when 11.2 days were lost per FTE.

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A council report said this equates to 135 extra staff being available to work for the entire year, based on 220 working days per year.

But it added the overwhelming majority of staff had not taken any days off sick.

It says: “The vast majority of council employees have excellent attendance levels, as data indicates that 2,463 employees attended work every day during the period from April 2018 to March 2019, with the council having an attendance level of 94.3 per cent.”

The Welsh Government's target for sickness is 8.5 per cent, but only one council in Wales, Denbighshire, was below this.

Some of the ongoing measures the council undertakes to improve attendance include a payroll system with access to sickness trends and quarterly sickness absence information.

Mental health training will be available to all staff members and a guide will be created to signpost employees to practical advice for dealing with mental health issues.

During a consultation on sickness absence, the council spoke to the trade unions.

The council report says: “The trade unions believe it is everyone’s interest to reduce sickness absence levels to an acceptable level and will continue to work positively with the council to achieve this.

“High sickness levels have a significant impact on staff who have to undertake a greater compressed workload for absentees resulting in those helpful staff reporting sick themselves with stress and anxiety.

“Since 2010 staff have endured continual uncertainty around their future and livelihoods.

“There have been continual change programmes and staff downsizing as well as changing strategic leadership; the council will be aware; staff are required to do more with less.

“In previous scrutiny meetings the trade unions have stated there needs to be a consistency in approach by managers in addressing absenteeism in staff’s one to one meetings.

“Over 95 per cent of the current workforce as a whole do not take sick leave.

“The trade unions call upon the council to ensure that the current sickness and absenteeism policies and procedures are being followed by all managers, and to address the small percentage of sickness absenteeism.”