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Rise in stress-related absence at West Berkshire Council





A report due before the council’s executive board tonight (Thursday) outlines the extent to which stress-related sickness has shot up in the last two years as the council sheds jobs.
Fear of being next for the chop has been blamed for the rise, following hundreds of job losses over the last two years at the council in an effort to cut millions from its shrinking budget..
The report shows there are 124 fewer full time positions at the council than last year, however stress, depression or anxiety as the top illness had climbed to 26.6 per cent from 18.4 per cent in 2009/10.
The council’s Human Resources and Health and Safety departments are altering the stress management policy in response to the problem.
West Berkshire Council’s union Unison has said it is extremely concerned about the “startling” rise in sickness due to stress and will be raising the matter with the chief executive and the head of HR.
Spokesman David Pearson said while the number of employees was shrinking, output was expected to be the same, placing many employees under huge amounts of strain.
“People are expecting the same or improved services and are giving our members a hard time if they don't get what they expect,” he said.
Back problems and flu make up the two other most common causes of absence.
The knock-on effect is an increase in referrals to Occupational Health, the number of which has gone up to 348 from 212 in 2010/11.
Staff turnover has almost doubled in three years to 15.82 per cent.
The council also recorded 51 disciplinary cases resulting in 14 formal warnings or dismissals, another leap on the year before.
Mr Pearson said: “Another significant problem is the inappropriately harsh use of disciplinary, capability and sickness capability procedures in many service areas.
“These procedures allow for informal resolution of problems but there is an increasing tendency for managers to jump straight into formal action with the result that many of the staff who are subject to these procedures end up going off sick with stress.”
He said the union felt a review of the stress management policy was fine provided it was not a substitute for taking meaningful action to resolve the problem, and Unision would expected to be consulted.
The shadow spokesman for personnel and organisational change, David Rendel (Lib Dem, Thatcham Central), said he was not surprised by the trends.
“If you are constantly cutting jobs it puts huge pressure on those who are left, the frontline staff at the council are under a huge amount of pressure.
“They are frightened and think that they will be the next to go,” he said.
“One change that can be seen which is different from he past is staff are much more defensive about their jobs; there is less willingness to say ‘this policy didn’t work, let’s try something else’, and it tends to make people look to blame others. It can hurt the authority in the long run.



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