Sickness absence among Angus Council staff has increased for the second quarter running to more than 13,500 days over three months.
In a reporting period described as “doubly disappointing” by the authority’s top official, all areas of staff absence increased between January and March compared to the same period last year.
The overall percentage of working days lost was up 8% from 2013/14 and rose by 1.1% from the previous quarter.
The cost of sick pay for the quarter topped £1.1 million 4.5% of the council’s total salary costs.
A breakdown of data for the percentage of days lost revealed a 5.7% total for local government employees and 3.8% for teachers, giving a combined total of 5.25%, compared to 4.86% in the same period last year.
Those rates represent absence increases of 16.6% for teachers and 6.33% for local government employees from the first quarter of last year.
The number of working days lost was 11,130 (10,997 last year) for local government employees and, for teachers 2,449 (2,231).
The combined total of 13,579 compared to 13,228 in the same 2013/14 period.
Average days lost for the quarter was 2.68 per employee, against 2.50 last year.
Single day absences accounted for 5% of days lost, 24% were absences of two to five days, 25% absences of six to 20 days and 46% sick periods of more than 20 days.
Stress-related sickness accounted for almost a quarter of all absences in the quarter, with colds/flu and stomach complaints both over 10%.
Council chief executive Richard Stiff admitted a second consecutive quarterly rise after a 15-month period of reducing sickness levels was an unwelcome turn of events.
“On this occasion the report shows a relatively disappointing outturn, certainly by comparison to the same period last year,” he said.
“In effect, we have seen a worsening of our situation.
“It is doubly disappointing because we have been working hard across all services to better manage staff absence.”
He said mitigating factors included the fact that 46% of absences in the last reporting period were for periods of 20 days or more.
“Those long-term absences are very few but have a disproportionate impact,” he said.