Stress blamed for high absence rates in public sector

Absence rates in the public sector remain “persistently higher” than in other sectors, research conducted for the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development has claimed.

The CIPD’s annual absence survey suggested that the average annual absence per employee in the public sector was 9.6 days. This compared to 6.6 days in the private sector and 8.3 days in the not-for-profit sector.

The survey also revealed that stress is the most common cause for persistently high long-term absence in the public sector, with 73% of employees in manual jobs and 79% in non-manual jobs reporting it as one of the top five causes of absence.

According to the CIPD, the median annual cost of public-sector absence is £889 per employee compared with a median across all sectors of £600 per employee.

Jill Miller, an adviser to the Institute, said the survey showed why closing the gap between public and private-sector absence has proved so difficult for successive governments.

“Compared to the private sector, more public-sector employees are in challenging public-facing roles such as social work, policing, teaching and nursing where they often have to deal with people in difficult and emotionally charged situations, putting pressure on their time and resilience,” she argued.

“In addition, organisational change and restructuring is cited more commonly by public-sector employers than those in other sectors as a major cause of stress, which will only increase in the near future as a consequence of the recent Comprehensive Spending Review.”