Almost a full working month – per employee – was lost to staff absenteeism in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council over the past year, sparking warnings that services are being placed under mounting strain.
Councillor Keith Ratcliffe has expressed serious concerns with the figures with nearly 30 days on average of reported non-attendance per member of staff.
The TUV representative for Cusher DEA made his remarks as the Business Plan 2025/26 Year End Progress Reports were being presented at the June 2 ABC Environmental Services committee meeting.
He commented: “I’m deeply concerned about absenteeism again. I’ve been sitting on this committee now for over three years, and I see nearly 30 days per member of staff off during the year.
“I realise that there’s genuine long-term absenteeism due to long-term health issues, but I really am deeply concerned that there’s nearly a full month lost in absenteeism throughout the year.
“It puts pressure on our officers, puts pressure on our own staff, and also puts pressure on delivering our frontline services.
“I’m deeply concerned and I think we really need to get a bit more information on this. We need our HR department to really step up here and try to get to grips with this, because it simply isn’t good enough.
“I think we need to report back to see exactly where things are going wrong here. I think we need to know firstly — and I know there is long-term sickness — but we need to know what is long-term and what is short-term, [and] what it is costing the council and our ratepayers.
“I’ve watched [this] continuously year after year and I think it’s actually up from last year, but I might be wrong.”
Director of environmental services & sustainability, Jonathan Hayes confirmed that absenteeism was indeed up from last year: “Yes, it is slightly up on last year, and your comments are well made and noted.
“At the recent Environmental Services Working Group on May 18, we did cover some of the points that you have raised in a degree of detail, but certainly we can provide additional information in relation to that as well.
“To provide some level of reassurance to members, the officers within the departments do proactively engage in terms of the short-term and long-term sickness with staff, and in conjunction with HR.
“The age profile within the department equally is on the higher side in terms of the department itself and the workforce.
“We do acknowledge the strain that that can put, but we do have a number of measures to ensure continuity of service delivery within environmental services.
“Officers do proactively engage with staff, while recognising that there are a number of staff on long-term sickness, which does impact significantly on the statistics in that regard.”
Councillor Margaret Tinsley (DUP, Craigavon DEA) felt the way the figures were being presented by council officers needed to be reviewed as well: “I’ve been raising this for quite some time — not so much about the figures, but how the figures are actually presented.
“I feel that when we get into the long-term sickness, we are into a completely different area, and I have asked on numerous occasions for the long-term figures to be recorded separately, because that would give us a true reflection of what our absenteeism is in the short-term.
“And that is what’s having a dramatic impact on our services, because it’s those short-term absences — when we don’t know if someone is coming in tomorrow unexpectedly.
“I have asked for that on numerous occasions. I don’t know why it hasn’t been done. I think it would actually help us to understand the absence figures.”
