Big jump in sick leave claims

Thursday 16 June 2016

A steep rise in the number of people making benefit claims for time lost to work-related illnesses led to almost £750,000 in social security pay-outs last year and over 26,000 lost working days.

These claims were primarily related to stress or musculoskeletal disorders and marked a 35% jump in working days lost to illness over 2014, according to the recently released 2015 Annual Report of the Health and Safety Inspectorate (HSI) - and a 38 percent rise in short-term incapacity allowance claims for illness.

The sector most affected by stress-related workplace illness was Health and Social Care, according to the report, and stress-related illnesses have been trending upwards since 2011.

“It is believed that the significant increase in working days lost in 2015 is likely to be due to the increased numbers of reported work related ill health, and stress-related illnesses in particular, which typically result in longer absences than work related accidents,” the report said.

While work-related illnesses were on the rise, the total number of work-related accidents remained relatively stable over 2014 - 457 in 2015 against 438 the previous year.

“It is disappointing to note that in 2015, 748 work related accidents and ill health were reported through claims for Social Security benefit,” the report said.

“It is clear, however, that there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve some real and positives outcomes in tackling the number of people injured, or made ill, as a result of their work,” added Health and Safety Directory Tammy Fage.

Reporting a workplace injury or accident is not mandatory in Jersey, as it is in the UK. Rather incidents are traced following claims for short term incapacity allowance.

The HSI carried out 241 proactive inspections of high risk workplaces in 2015 and responded to 2,000 telephone calls and 1,300 written responses.

The inspectorate also received 149 serious complaints last year – which it then ranks on a severity scale from 1-3.

There were no prosecutions in 2015 in relation to workplace accidents but the report noted that a number of serious accidents are still under investigation. And a fatal construction accident which occurred in 2014 is still being considered by the Attorney General.

The majority of workplace accident reports continue to arise in the construction industry although the report notes that much progress has been made in improving safety, including the adoption of an approved Code of Practice last year.

However, concern was raised over the number of legal enforcement orders the inspectorate produced in relation to lack of sufficient fall protection.

“It is disappointing to note that over half of all Prohibition Notices (nine in total) were served for work on flat roofs, where no, or inadequate, precautions had been taken to prevent a fall from an unprotected roof edge,” the report said. “A further four Prohibition Notices were served for other unsafe work at height.

“Controlling the risks of falls from height is one of the simplest, and most well documented, risks to control against. There is no excuse for not properly planning for such high risk work.”