HIGH levels of sickness absence among council staff in Blaenau Gwent is costing the authority up to £2million per year, it has been claimed.

Blaenau Gwent council is drawing up a revised attendance management policy in an attempt to tackle the issue.

Last year council staff took an average of 11.23 days in sickness absence, though this figure also includes long-term absences.

Although the figure is a reduction of more than one day on the previous year, it is still below the council's target of 10.20 days.

It is also quite some way behind the best performing local authority in Wales, Merthyr County Borough Council, which has an average of 6.6 days absence per employee.

A task and finish group was set up in a bid to improve the sickness rate among staff after councillors were "rightly concerned about the high levels of sickness absence," a council report says.

At a meeting of the council's corporate overview scrutiny committee on Wednesday, Cllr Lyn Elias (Independent, Brynmawr) said that the amount of sickness absences was costing the authority when compared to others.

He said: "I am a little concerned when you say we went to visit Merthyr and theirs was 6.6.

"If you equate money to the absences then you will find the figures add up to about £1.5million to £2million in costs to this authority which is quite a considerable amount of money."

Cllr Elias stressed the issue was not about targeting staff who were sick, but that the council could learn from other authorities to improve their system.

South Wales Argus:

The proposed revisions to the attendance management policy includes introducing a review meeting for any absence that lasts for more than three months.

The review meeting will be aimed at agreeing a plan for resolution, such as allowing the employee to identify a return to work date, apply for redeployment or offer their resignation.

Timescales for long-term sickness absence referrals will also be reduced from four to two weeks under the proposals.

The plans, which will be decided at a full council meeting next month, also include moving the 'onus' on to the employee to 'own' their attendance record.

The scrutiny committee voted to recommend for the council adopts the new policy.