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Talks with the unions are ongoing. One alternative put forward in negotiations was to equalise all holiday entitlements by lowering the entitlement for the better paid (Band A upwards). Apparently this would save £3.2M, thus removing the need for any other changes to Terms and Conditions. NCC rejected the proposal.
Read the original NCC report here.
The council's Personnel Committee papers for the 29th January includes a report from the Service Director of Human Resources on levels of sickness at NCC and proposals to reduce them.
NCC has reduced its average number of days lost per employee to 9.56, but they're aiming for 8.75 by March 2010. The biggest cause of sick days is medical operations and post operative recovery. The second most common cause is stress.
NCC is setting up a steering group to examine the issue of stress and "prevent and identify potential stress at an earlier stage".
There are also various proposals. Trigger levels for absence management action are to be set to 3 instances of absence in any 6 months, or 10 working days per 12 months, or a 2 working-week equivalent for part-timers. The unions are said to be opposed to this. Appeals against dismissals brought about by absence management are to be heard by senior managers, rather than elected members. The unions are said to be opposed to this.
Statistical breakdowns on absences are to be circulated to Corporate and Service Directors on a quarterly basis "in order to address the common themes and issues identified in addition to more localised issues."
And finally, a pilot project is to be set up to have people who are phoning in sick report their symptoms to a qualified nurse rather than their line manager.