Union Responds To Audit Office Report On Sick Absence

8 Jun 2007 11:32 AM

Attacks on driving examiners, job cuts leading to increased workloads and stressful work conditions are the true story behind sick absence in the Department for Transport (DfT) and its agencies, PCS said today (8 June).

Responding to today's National Audit Office (NAO) report into the management of sickness absence in the DfT and its agencies, the union pointed to a 41% increase in the number of attacks on driving examiners since 2002, which totalled 348 in the last year alone.

With mental health illness including stress accounting for a large portion of long term sickness absence, the union claimed that job cuts leading to increased workloads, as well as stressful and confrontational interactions with the public involving frontline staff, were major contributing factors.

Staff in the DfT and its agencies do a wide range of jobs ranging from, driving examiners, coastguards and traffic officers to vehicle testers, policy and administration. The union warned against the adoption of a knee jerk draconian approach by the department and its agencies and instead called for the causes of sick absence to be recognised and tackled seriously in a positive manner.

Commenting, Norina O'Hare PCS national officer for the DfT, said: "The picture behind these figures is a shocking increase in attacks on driving examiners combined with job cuts that are leading to increasing workloads and stress related illness. Attacks on driving examiners could be partly dealt with if test results were sent through the post like in . Rather than a knee jerk draconian approach, the DfT and the rest of its agencies should follow the lead of the Highways Agency by introducing a well being at work programme which includes health checks as well as advice and workshops on recognising and coping with stress."

Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, added: "Job cuts resulting in increasing workloads combined with an unacceptable rise in attacks on driving examiners is the real story here. If the DfT and its agencies are serious about tackling sickness absence then there needs to be a concerted attempt at recognising the causes and dealing with them in a proactive and positive manner."