tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Part 2 of a two-part series on sick days taken by public-sector health and education workers. Today's stories include a look at how the H1N1 virus affected staffing levels and an examination of the cost of sick time to the two city school divisions.
Sick day data gathered from some public agencies in Saskatoon shows just how hard the autumn H1N1 outbreak hit workers and public services.
The Saskatoon Health Region's day-by-day breakdown of workers calling in sick shows absenteeism started hovering significantly above average every day during the last week of September 2009. Beginning on Sept. 28, at least 100 more workers than average were calling in sick every weekday until about Nov. 10. The numbers of sick calls coming in were unmatched by any other time in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 operating years, to date.
Depending on the day of the week, a typical day with high absenteeism for the region would see calls in the mid-to-high 700s (some health-care workers have every third Friday off, pushing Friday numbers much lower). During the H1N1 outbreak, the number of health region workers calling in sick was in the mid-800s on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The hardest-hit day appears to have been Oct. 28, when 909 region workers called in sick.
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Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/healt...er+sick+days/3100980/story.html#ixzz0pg7CHNqD
Sick day data gathered from some public agencies in Saskatoon shows just how hard the autumn H1N1 outbreak hit workers and public services.
The Saskatoon Health Region's day-by-day breakdown of workers calling in sick shows absenteeism started hovering significantly above average every day during the last week of September 2009. Beginning on Sept. 28, at least 100 more workers than average were calling in sick every weekday until about Nov. 10. The numbers of sick calls coming in were unmatched by any other time in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 operating years, to date.
Depending on the day of the week, a typical day with high absenteeism for the region would see calls in the mid-to-high 700s (some health-care workers have every third Friday off, pushing Friday numbers much lower). During the H1N1 outbreak, the number of health region workers calling in sick was in the mid-800s on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The hardest-hit day appears to have been Oct. 28, when 909 region workers called in sick.
...
Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/healt...er+sick+days/3100980/story.html#ixzz0pg7CHNqD