By John Cousins
Tauranga City Council's 430 staff can now get up to six months paid "wellness" leave for sickness - but the new system aims to identify those who abuse it.
The council is trialling a new system which eliminates one of the major incentives to get out of the sick bed - running out of paid sick days.
Staff can now recover without worrying about how many paid sick days remain.
Council chief executive Stephen Town said he did not want people coming back to work early and infecting everyone else in the office.
"The whole concept was to keep people healthy and at work."
The two-year trial of "wellness leave" will make little difference to the majority of conscientious and healthy workers who occasionally succumb to bouts of flu. They previously had 10 days' sick leave a year. But it ushers in a new culture of checks and balances for the rest, such as the seriously ill or those with chronic Mondayitis.
All patterns of sickness deviating from the norm are being reported to a special team of five council staff. They monitor people whose employment record hinted at regular sickies or an underlying health problem that was not being properly addressed.
The focus was on staff with regular sick leave patterns, those absent for more than four consecutive days or those with a series of shorter absences totalling more than six days a year.
These "exceptions" will be referred to the staff member's manager whose bag of options included withdrawing wellness leave, formal monitoring of sick leave and recommending counselling or a medical examination. Wellness leave treats sickies as "serious misconduct" and the trial will be judged on whether there is a reduction in the average annual sick leave per employee.
Council human resources manager John Beck was confident they would achieve a reduction. The trend over the past three months was slightly downwards.
Mr Beck said wellness leave was introduced to New Zealand eight years ago by Fisher and Paykel.
The council was hoping wellness leave would slow staff turnover in a highly competitive job market, attract more highly skilled recruits, reduce sick leave and increase productivity.
Guidelines published by the council say wellness leave relied on mutual trust between staff and their colleagues.
Nearly all council staff have opted for the new system, meaning they must release information about their absences, including medical reports, to managers and Mr Beck.
Wellness leave offered three months' leave on full pay for those requiring a long period of recuperation from serious illness. There was a further three months on half pay, after which it was leave without pay.
The council reserved the right at any time to seek its own medical advice on the likelihood of the patient returning to work - opening up the prospect of the person losing their job.
Staff could also be asked to sign an agreement allowing council management to become involved in their rehabilitation process.
Six months' sick leave on tap for council
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