STAFF sickness is costing the county council almost £3m a year in lost productivity and it is failing to keep track those off ill.

The bill for long-term sickness is ‘much higher than other local authorities and could not be sustained in the current financial climate,’ councillors have noted.

The estimated yearly cost of sickness does not include hiring temporary staff to cover absence.

But based on the average cost of £1.2m for agency staff per quarter, it means the total cost of absence for the year is around £6m.

Concerns have been raised about the low referral rate of those on long-term sick to occupational health, which ‘raises questions regarding the level of contact being maintained with employees during such absences.’ And of 91 employees on longterm sick leave as a result of stress and anxiety, only half have been referred.

Long-term sick makes up a high percentage of employees’ absence, standing at 51 percent compared to 28 per cent in the public sector.

Last year, 374 employees were signed off long-term sick.

The target for sickness is 7.5 working days per full time employee.

But between October and December 2014, the number of days lost per employee was almost 10.

This is more than double the national average for all working people, which currently stands at 4.4 days a year.

For certain departments, such as the Dorset Waste Partnership (DWP) – which is a joint venture between several councils – the number of days lost to sickness was even greater.

For October - December 2014, DWP had 14 days average sick per employee.

A target of just under 10 days has been set for 2015/16 which it is estimated could save around £100,000 from the DWP budget.

Robert Gould, leader of the county council, told the Echo that the authority is taking the situation ‘very seriously’.

He added: “Our ambition is for our sickness absence to be as good as or better than other similar authorities.

“We have put in place a number of measures to support our staff back to work and these are bringing about improvements as highlighted in the report in Highways, Passenger Transport and the Dorset Waste Partnership.

“We are setting new targets and directors will be monitoring these closely to ensure continued improvement.

“The cost quoted from a previous meeting in January is the total cost of sickness absence and as there will always be some absences, this could never be eliminated entirely.”

The council will implement a new Management of Attendance Policy and procedures from July 2015 which will cover issues such as the importance of monitoring contact with employees on longterm sick leave, how to handle difficult conversations and employee and manager responsibilities.