Public workers’ sick leave costs €120m

SICK leave taken by the country’s 36,200 civil servants costs more than €120 million per annum with the average employee off work for 11 days due to illness.

A report by the Comptroller & Auditor General, John Buckley, found 345,105 working days were lost due to sickness in 2007. Almost 10% of all sick days taken by State employees are uncertified.

The study by the State’s public spending watchdog found absenteeism rates have risen by 50% since the issue was last surveyed during the 1980s.