WITH the government putting the final touches to two new reports that aim to cut public-sector absenteeism, the release this month of the latest sick- leave rates in the civil service is pretty embarrassing.

In 1998 the government set a target of cutting average sick leave among its own employees to 7.2 days per individual per year. Instead, the number of “sickies” rose from 9.8 to 10 days in 2003, the third consecutive annual rise in civil-service absenteeism.

Levels of sick leave concern both the private and public sectors, but overall public-sector absenteeism — 10.7 days a year — outstrips the private-sector rate of of 7.8 days and costs the taxpayer £4 billion a year.

In the run-up to Gordon Brown’s three-year comprehensive spending review in the summer of this year, the chancellor was said to be so incensed by what he considered shirking in the public sector that he planned to withdraw sick pay for the first few days of any absence, in line with a strategy adopted by Tesco, the supermarket chain.

That did not happen. But the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said it would not be surprised if the idea of docking sick pay was resurrected next month when reports into long-term and short-term absences, produced by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Cabinet Office, are published.

The PCS believes that the “slight” rise in civil-service absenteeism is mainly due to “disproportionately” high rates of sickness leave in the troubled Child Support Agency (CSA). “The absentee levels there only back our point that instead of bringing out the big stick, the government should be looking at the underlying causes of absenteeism,” said the union.

The CSA’s absence rate in 2003 was 10.6 days, but those at many other government departments and agencies are just as high — or even higher. They include the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (11.8 days) and the Prison Service (12.5).

Big stick or gentler, more persuasive measures is the choice facing both public and private-sector bodies struggling with absenteeism. Some private companies claim absenteeism has been cut by docking sick pay. But Vanessa Hollingworth, personnel manager with South Downs Health NHS trust, has seen absenteeism among the 3,000 staff fall from 4.7% to 2.25% over two years and says the big stick was neither necessary nor appropriate.

“We introduced return-to-work interviews for all staff, even when they took just one day off,” she explained.

Hollingworth insisted that closer monitoring was never meant to make staff feel that the genuineness of their sickness was being questioned or that they were being pushed to get back to work when they should not be there.

“That’s not the culture of this organisation,” she said, arguing that the new system encouraged openness and uncovered underlying difficulties, including heavy workload and stress.

This, in turn, had changed the organisation, making it a more pleasant place to work, she said.

Though Hollingworth denies that it was ever the intention, she thinks that having to explain every sick day has had a psychological effect that has helped to reduce sickness rates.

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