HAMILTON, Bermuda (CMC) – Statistics in a new report on government efficiency have shown that sick days by government workers cost more than US$10 million a year.
According to the Spending and Government Efficiency report (SAGE), public servants take an average of eight days off sick every year, nearly 42 000 days in total.
The report, sanctioned by Finance Minister Bob Richards and unveiled in the House of Assembly on Friday, said it was unable to get figures for sickness levels for the island’s workforce, but the illness rate among public servants in Bermuda was three times the average for Gibraltar and the Isle of Man.
The said close to 66 per cent of government workers had “a reasonable level” of sick time but said “there is a high proportion of government workers (33 per cent) who take an unusually high level of sick leave. This group is responsible for the bulk of the almost 42 000 sick days taken in 2012-13.”
