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The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality forked out a staggering R462.36m for sick leave over a period of five years.
Employees clocked up a total of 367,283 sick days, about 119,000 of which were taken without medical certificates.
The municipality has a total workforce headcount of 7,513.
This financial burden of absenteeism was laid bare during a human resources and corporate administration committee meeting last week, where the report was noted by councillors.
The report tabled by acting corporate services director Yolanda Matakane-Dakuse covered the period between March 1 2020 and February 28 2025 in respect of sick leave, extended sick leave (full pay), extended sick leave (half pay), unpaid sick leave and injury on duty (IOD).
The 367,283 days off were divided as follows:
- Sick leave: 333,478;
- Chronic 30 days full: 11,232;
- Chronic 20 days half: 1,250;
- Sick leave unpaid: 13,039; and
- Injury on duty: 8,284
According to the report, the amount paid out did not include the 13,039 days of unpaid sick leave or the 4,899 days taken by Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers.
“Of the 367,283 days used, a total of 247,730 were supported by sick certificates,” the report said.
“All sick leave absences of more than two consecutive days must be reported by a certificate in respect of sick and unpaid sick leave.”
The winter season had the highest rate of absenteeism.
“It should be noted that most sick leave absences commenced on a Monday, with a total of 75,343.5 days.”
The top three reasons given for sick days included psychosocial leave followed by musculoskeletal illness and respiratory illnesses.
A total of 210,930 (57%) days were used for unspecified sick leave absences and 85,295 for medical examinations.
No medical diagnoses were specified for 78,354 days and 41,388.5 days were used for miscellaneous absences where more than one diagnosis were specified on the certificate.
The period covers the Covid-19 pandemic when SA went on lockdown and accordingly, the absenteeism rate was expected to increase significantly due to the addition of special leave granted to vulnerable employees during the pandemic.
A total of 551 employees aged 60 and up were required to stay home between March 26 2020 until July 2021.
During this period, workers between 46-60 used the highest amount of sick leave.
Of the city’s directorates, safety and security used the most with 79,019 days taken, followed by infrastructure and engineering with 76,410, and public health with 52,629.
During the five-year period, 352 municipal employees died while 125 left on ill health.
The municipality is also limping along with a vacancy rate of 73%, according to a recent quarterly risk management report tabled during a municipal public accounts committee meeting.
DA councillor Annette Lovemore said there was no indication of trends in terms of whether the city was improving or if matters were getting worse.
“The report shows the average absenteeism rate across the metro rate to be 3.5%,” Lovemore said.
“This is considered reasonable, though there are more nationally accepted benchmarks.
“However, the report includes the Covid-19 period when much of the sick leave was granted as special leave, based on comorbidity rates or contact with positive Covid cases.”
Lovemore said the report did not include possible action steps where problems had been identified.
“Problem areas certainly exist.
“The absenteeism rate for firefighters is 5.68%, for the workers at the Fresh Produce Market it is 5.6% and for traffic services it is 4.98%.
“These levels definitely require management attention and intervention but there is no indication of what action is being or will be taken.
“Surely an analysis of the reasons for such high levels of absenteeism must be a starting point?
“Is the morale low? Why?
“Is there adequate, appropriate management in place?
“Are these areas short-staffed, putting pressure on the few who have to shoulder the full burden?”
She said whatever the reasons, they should be identified to inform the steps taken towards intervention.
Lovemore said the lowest level of absenteeism, 0.42%, occurred among seasonal workers such as lifeguards and asked what they were doing right.
“Most of the narrative and the tables in the report are not meaningful simply because the number of employees per directorate is not compared with the number of sick leave days.
“It is really important to determine what the problem directorates are and then to drill down to sub-directorates to address the problems that might be resulting in excessive sick leave being taken.”
She said the absenteeism monitoring committee (comprising officials from corporate services and public health) had not met for more than two years.
Matakane-Dakuse said there would be further engagements as councillors wanted a more balanced report.
“There is no baseline to compare the figures to,” she said.
“The report needs to come back to the committee to indicate which departments are most affected and the material impacts on the absenteeism stated.”
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