The 354,417 sick days taken by Nelson Mandela Bay officials in the last five years were enough to turn the stomachs of councillors during a committee meeting on Tuesday.
Of the sick days taken, 235,689 were supported by a medical certificate.
The most prevalent health issues cited for sick leave days were musculoskeletal illnesses (30,422), psychosocial illnesses (26,614), depression (12,397), backache (11,076), lumbago (5,298) and myalgia (2,393).
Monday was the most popular day to supply a medical certificate, covering 40% of those received.
But Tuesday is the most popular day to call in sick, with Wednesday close behind.
The municipality has 8,206 workers (including temporary workers), with 6,490 submitting certificates during the period under review.
The details are contained in a corporate services and human resources committee report.
The top 10 positions with the highest sick leave taken are:
- General assistants (43,938);
- Senior clerks (28,454);
- General workers (26,619);
- Watchmen (17,038);
- Artisan assistants (9,977);
- Traffic officers (8,569);
- Admin clerks (8,416);
- General assistants in engineering (7,281)
- Leading firefighters (6,345); and
- Electrical artisans (5,688).
Committee members are now calling for the city to activate and implement its automated leave application system, which will approve or reject requests based on the information provided for improved monitoring of absenteeism.
The report addressed questions from the DA caucus regarding sick leave patterns submitted in November 2023, with responses provided only 11 months later.
The report shows the absenteeism rate for paid sick leave was 1.14%.
DA councillor Annette Lovemore said she was shocked at the nearly year-long delay in responding to questions and the inaccuracies provided.
“What worries me the most is how we have a 1.14% absenteeism rate over five years.
“I’m afraid that this is extreme nonsense.”
She said the period included Covid-19 and lockdowns when no-one was at work.
“We had a contractor at the time to analyse sick leave patterns but we terminated it because it was pointless doing the analysis when no-one was at work.
“Yet we included the Covid-19 period during the five years.”
She said if one year from the pandemic were removed from the reporting period they would get a 13% absenteeism rate.
Human resources director Chris Jamda said the report was based on medical certificates.
“However, I will take Lovemore’s comments on Covid-19 to state how much leave was taken during the pandemic.
“We must also remember that during the Covid-19 period, there were categories of employees reporting for duty — this does not mean no leave was taken.”
Corporate services political head Yolisa Pali said the department needed to fast-track an investigation into the automated leave application system to curb absenteeism.
In his report, Jamda said all applications for leave were completed and approved manually in different directorates and taken to his department for capturing.
“The manual process often gives rise to a delay in the approval and capturing of leave.
“This is a repeat audit finding in respect of leave management,” the report says.
“The personnel administration module makes a provision for the approval of the leave in the employee and manager self-services (ESS/MSS) platform.
“To date, this functionality has not been activated.”
Jamda said the automation of the system would have an immediate positive effect on leave management and compliance.
“The activation and implementation of the automated request and approval of leave will be investigated.”
HeraldLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.