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Shoddy Journalism in the Examiner
Read more about: Social Policy 
The Irish Examiner has a piece in the paper today. Department staff clocked up 20,000 sick days in 3 years
Oh my that is shocking 20,000. With 5,000 staff. That means that people are taking 1.3 Days on Average uncertified sick leave a year. Emm. Not so shocking now is it? Indeed I guess across all walks of life that is probably normal. People get sick and being 1 day sick a year is well not unusual.
Also as for this.
As the numbers out of work hit a record high, documents released under Freedom of Information show staff from Mary Hanafin’s department have already taken 1,705 so- called ‘duvet days’ this year — and are one of the worst offenders across all Government departments.
If you check out kildarestreet.com you could see the numbers are already on the Dail record no need to spend money on an FOI.
More than a quarter of the sick days were on a Monday.
Oh dear 25% on a Monday. Well considering that there is 5 days a week. Every day should have on average 20%. Which is slightly below 25% but not amazingly so. Also think about it if you are ill on a Monday morning you are unlikely to go in thinking you have a working week to be sick through. While on a Friday you might think. Well I only have to last 1 day then it is the weekend I can do that. Indeed if you look at the numbers for the week you see for instance in 2007. 5933 uncertified sick days. 1,491 on a Monday and 691 on a Friday. So while Monday has 25.1% of sickdays. Friday has 12%.
This possibly leads to people going in Ill giving it to colleagues where the illness incubates for 2 days then hits on a Monday. So really this story is reporting nothing much but might be some use to a social scientist researching peoples attitudes to being sick. As the Friday thing goes through a few departments. Agri tourism to name 2.
This is just shoddy journalism.
Journalist – twiddling thumbs – ‘What can I FOI today?’
This is another example of the continued onslaught of attacks on the public sector, aiming for sensationalist stories to anger the public.
Why has no one bothered to query the number of contract staff let go from public sector organisations or the number of temporary roles which are not being filled, or the number of natural attrition in the sector. The INO has reported that there will be 6,000 less nurses in our hospitals in the coming months due to the public sector embargo.
The Editor of the Examiner seems incapable of running a spell check, so can hardly be expected to use some discretion in not letting numbers skew reality. Its all a sorry state of affairs.
The irony of someone bemoaning the Examiner’s low editorial standards and then proclaiming that ‘its’ all a sorry state of affairs. It is indeed.
I wonder if anyone will cover the numbers of Civil Servants who chose to take the early retirement package on offer from the budget. I hear anyone over 50 is running out the doors.
That means that people are taking 1.3 Days on Average sick leave a year.
It doesn’t. The Examiner’s story refers to uncertified sick days. A different kettle of fish to sick leave in general.
Not at all. Most employers will not look for a sick cert for 1 day off sick. Indeed I know in England a doctor wouldn’t give you a sick cert for anything less then about a week. In your workplace John do you have to produce a sick cert for everyday your off? I’d be surprised if you were.
Simon, there is a difference between uncertified sick leave, and sick leave in general. When you say “that people are taking 1.3 Days on Average sick leave a year” you are misinterpreting the story.
Staff in the Department of Social and Family Affairs staff in 2007 took on average 14.74 days sick leave, although that is reduced to 11.35 when absences of more than six months are excluded.
http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0664/D.0664.200810210246.html
Sorry John you are right. There is a difference between Uncertified and certified. So I have corrected the above. My point still stands however. 1.3 uncertified days is not a lot.
Excuse me for pimping my own stuff but John’s last link is also available here:
http://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2008-10-21.1817.0
…and in fact Leo Varadkar got a large number of written answers to the same question that day from several departments, for people who are interested in this sort of thing:
http://www.kildarestreet.com/search/?s=section%3Awrans+date%3A20081021+absenteeism
(Honestly – our search engine really has it goin’ on.)