The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) has published the public service sick leave statistics for 2014. The latest figures report a significant reduction in absenteeism rates and reductions to the cost of sick leave compared to the previous year.

The figures relate to 245,000 full-time equivalent posts across  public services and includes the Civil Service, local authorities, and the education, health, justice and defence sectors.

The department’s statistics report shows an average of 8.7 days, per full-time equivalent post, were taken as sick leave in 2014, which is down from 9.5 days in 2013. The rate of sick leave across the service is now 4.0%, a reduction of 0.3% on the 2013 figure, and the report says that this represents an additional 260,000 days worked by public servants in 2014 compared to the previous year.

The report says that the overall cost of sick leave to the state is estimated at €319 million for 2014 and that this represents a saving of almost 14% (€51.5 million) since 2013.

New sick leave arrangements for public service workers came into force in March 2014, so the cost reductions for a full year are likely to be greater.

The changes to sick leave, introduced last year, mean that a distinction is made between ‘critical’ and ‘non-critical’ illnesses when implementing paid sick leave arrangements. The amount of paid leave for non-critical illnesses was halved to three months on full pay, followed by three months on half pay. However, IMPACT and other unions successfully argued that staff with critical illnesses should keep the existing arrangement of six months on full pay, followed by six months on half pay.

The critical illness protocol sets out procedures for defining a ‘critical’ illness, and clarifies how an individual’s eligibility for full and half-paid leave is determined.