Shock at police sick leave abuse

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SinghDude

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Police are abusing sick leave, with staff working at one police station alone taking an average of 77.2 days off sick each.

Abuse of sick leave has been identified as the “number one risk” to the police, and a “health risk manager” had now been appointed to refer serial absentees to “neutral” doctors to find out if they are really too sick to go to work.

“There are people in the department who, according to the sick leave register, are supposed to have died, because there isn’t any part of their body that has not been ill.

“However, they are strong and kicking. They are not dead,” said the chairwoman of Parliament’s police oversight committee, Sindi Chikunga.

Police management were appearing before the oversight committee on Tuesday to discuss an audit of building leases, but in her opening remarks Chikunga raised absenteeism statistics. These had been presented during the department’s annual report hearings last year. Reading from these stats, she singled out some of the worst police stations for absenteeism:

*In the Maitland police station in Cape Town, for example, the 85 staff took a total of 6 579 sick days in one year, at an average of 77.2 days each. “It means there is nobody working at this police station, period. Then the question is, ‘Why is it happening, why is it allowed to happen’?” asked Chikunga;

* At Hilton police station in KwaZulu-Natal, 39 staff between them took 1 337 sick days at an average of 34.73;

* Midrand police station’s 196 staff took 5 935 sick days at an average of 30.3;

* Silverton police station’s 148 staff took 3 144 total sick days for an average 21.3;

* Pretoria North, where a staff complement of 169 took 3 354 sick days at an average of 19.9 a person;

* At Alexandra Road, 158 staff took 3 708 sick days at an average 23.8 and

* East London police station, with a total of 402 staff and sick days of 8 538, at an average of 21.27.

What made matters worse was that some of these individuals had been promoted despite their atrocious work ethic.

“I think it is a matter we will be discussing with the department. It means we are rewarding such behaviour,” Chikunga said.

She said there must be doctors who were helping the culprits by supplying them with medical certificates and called for them to be investigated.

“Police have a right to investigate. It is their responsibility if they think there is corruption. It is the right of police to investigate that (type of) corruption, using medical certificates.

“There are serious challenges in this regard and… we would be saying to doctors, ‘You are really not assisting us; you are not assisting our country. You are not assisting anybody by granting these medical certificates willy nilly’.”

The service’s chief operating officer, Lieutenant-General Bonang Ngwenya, agreed it was a problem “that makes us not proud as an organisation, because it impacts negatively on service delivery”.

She admitted there seemed to be a “lack of command and control” and the staff who did arrive for work would “obviously” be “taking a lot of strain”.

Abuse of sick leave had been identified as the number one risk to the organisation and a “health risk manager” had been appointed to refer serial absentees to “neutral” doctors. Ngwenya said the department had convened a three-day meeting in Pretoria, due to start today, where provincial commissioners responsible for human resources, among others, would be taken through reports of the oversight committee and areas of concern would be discussed. - Political Bureau
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Sick story

“There are people in the department who, according to the sick leave register, are supposed to have died, because there isn’t any part of their body that has not been ill.
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:D:D:D
 
Its a shame that the people who really need it dnt get it. Remember one cop who went to three psychologists which all said he needed leave and counselin
 
:eek:

So there wasn't a single day where in the past year where everyone was at work at those stations?
 
So do they go on "unpaid sick leave" Seriously. You do not have that amount of sick leave to use.
 
Cape Talk had a caller yesterday saying he had gone to a police station in Cape Town -and between 1 & 2 it was ' closed for lunch ' !
 
This might be a symptom of a bigger problem. Maybe the problem isn't the abuse of sick leave maybe the problem is that the amount of normal leave available is insufficient for this type of work(traumatic, dangerous, stressful)

I do think that the amount of leave available for most jobs(let alone police work) are insufficient for a typical person with for example a family to function normally(with normal stress levels).
 
It's not just in SAPS, everywhere I have worked, all in senior positions, I have had issues with the staff as they have an attitude that the "leave" is due to them and they will take/arrange it. Then when they need the leave for genuine reasons they cannot understand that it is without pay. (36 days per 3yr cycle)

That is why I left corporate life and started my own thing where I don't get forced to appoint people who don't give a **** and there is no loyalty or enthusiasm to actually get it done or cultural beliefs/traditions/ways get in the way of good business practice.

Although having said that I do also know that there are different stress's involved in the SAPS and this must take it's toll but hey they should manage this from above and sort out the truths and fakes.
 
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The good cops should be commended on their hardwork, dedication and sense of loyalty and pride in which they conduct themselves.


Unfortunately its the bad cops that tarnish the image of all cops......

Shopping in state owned vehicles and picking up prostitutes isn't a perk !!!!
 
Vegeta said:
This might be a symptom of a bigger problem. Maybe the problem isn't the abuse of sick leave maybe the problem is that the amount of normal leave available is insufficient for this type of work(traumatic, dangerous, stressful)
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Assuming that the annual leave is 15 days per annum (although I'm sure it's more than that):
77.2 + 15 days = 92.2 days per annum.
That's 18.4 weeks or 4.25 months of leave per annum if you don't count weekends.
 
Sad indeed but who cares? We get 22 days normal leave per year (26 if you serve more then 10 years) and 36days sick leave in 3 year cycle. That 36 was thought of as 1day per month (ladies considered). As most things in South Africa, on paper works 100% in practice of course is a different matter. If you go over the 36 days/3years, you need to apply for extra sick leave. Members feel entitled to the 36 days sick leave regardles. On another note, I can't understand why people worry about this small issue yet the public fail to see the huge corruption we have in the SAPS? How do you like this: a few years ago a police inspector got arrested for corruption and put in the police cells where he was kept for further investigation for a few days. During this time his promotion to captain came. (yes contacts do help) The police cells are visited regularly (supposed to be once a hour). The next day the inspector who visited the cells during the night, was called in and informed he has been departmentally charged for not saluting a officer. You think I joke, think again. Police officers are getting promoted for non performance just to get them out of the functional line and into the managerial where at least the public does not see them. WTF
 
An extramarital fling at the office can leave you pretty exhausted.
 
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