Staff attendance may impact health and safety issues
The official report for the seven terminations of health staff members cites absenteeism as the cause; however, there may be more to the story. Poor work attendance creates concerns in the health and safety of the employees and the safety and health of those they are meant to help. Five of the employees were from the Dublin area and two from the west of Ireland. Investigations led to serious worries regarding these employees. It was actually found that the health sector took more days off for sick leave than private sector workers did.
It is partly an issue of these civil servants taking days off even when they are not sick, but it leads to more than that. If the system is abused because the individuals do not come to work, anyone in the health sector taking these days off is probably less serious about their job. While there is no direct correlation stated in the news or reports, there is a common sense correlation that those who take time off abusing the pay they earn for sick days when they are not sick means they tend to have less care in their jobs. It could lead to serious health and safety issues at the work place in an area where health is extremely important. Any time a person is not serious in their work there is always a potential of damage, whether they cause an accident by neglect of duties or another incident occurs due to lack of attention.
