Sick leave at Neath Port Talbot Council reaches epidemic proportions

The equivalent of more than 400 years’ of working days were lost to sickness in the last year at Neath Port Talbot Council in South Wales.

Sickness levels reached a total of 97,000 days over the past 12 months, up from 79,000 the previous year, according to the Western Mail newspaper reports.

The average number of sick days for the council’s 9,000 staff was 11.7.

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Graham Jones, head of strategic personnel at Neath Port Talbot Council, said the organisation was working hard to reduce its sickness absence. The council was aiming to reduce absence levels by 10% over the next financial year, Jones said.

But Alun Cairns, Conservative assembly member for South Wales said he was staggered that the average member of staff had more than two weeks’ paid sick leave.