A survey of seven unidentified cities and another public workforce reveals London's days lost to sickness at city hall may not be out of line, says the city's top bureaucrat.

Jeff Fielding

But that still doesn't explain why overall job absenteeism for London civic workers is nearly double the 9.7-day average cited by Statistics Canada for civic workers nationwide.

Statistics compiled in a city survey and reported to council's board of control suggest the city has already shaved half a day off last year's average of 9.8 sick days taken by staff, said Jeff Fielding, the city's administrative officer.

"Our (sick day) numbers are right in the ball park with everyone else," he said.

"We're not the highest, or double the rates (of other cities). But we still contend we can do better and our target this year is a one-day reduction."

The report says London city workers took an average 9.8 sick days last year.

Three cities in the comparison and an unnamed workforce averaged higher sickness rates -- from 9.9 days, to 11.34.

The four cities with lower averages ranged from 7.88 to 9.

The report refers to the comparator cities only by alphabetic description -- "Municipality A," "Municipality B," and so on. It refers to the other workforce as "Public Sector A."

Fielding declined to identify the cities, saying they provided the information on condition they stay anonymous.

Still, he allowed The Free Press to examine the e-mails and information provided by the other cities to confirm the survey and its conclusions.

Fielding said the numbers compare "apples to apples" by focusing on paid sick days.

The board approved the hiring of consultant Mercer (Canada) Ltd., at a cost not to exceed $165,000, to explore city worker absenteeism, its causes and possible solutions.

That will include developing and conducting a survey of comparable cities and the costs of absenteeism, "financial and otherwise."

The issue first exploded in February when Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen asked about a city plan to hire a manager to oversee employee attendance.

That's when staff revealed absenteeism at city hall averaged 18.5 days a year, far higher than employees in typical municipal workforces.

A follow-up audit by an accounting firm put London's absenteeism average even higher -- at 19.4 days a year.

Latest Statistics Canada figures -- Fielding disputes the way they've been arrived at -- show government workers in in Canada typically miss an average of 12 days a year and civic employees an average of 9.7.

The higher, 19.4-day figure found for London's workforce led to Mercer's hiring to conduct an independent review.

Van Meerbergen couldn't be reached for comment yesterday, but Controller Gord Hume said the numbers aren't surprising and he's pleased with progress made so far.

"When you take out the disability, our numbers aren't out of line and I've always thought that," he said.

"But we want to try and get better and we will. I don't think the hysteria of a few months ago was justified.

"We're dealing with hard numbers now."

Fielding lamented that the city should have done its own comparative survey sooner.

"It would have been much more useful and shown we're an average municipality with room for improvement," he said.

"But (the Stats Canada information) was the right place for us to start because it was the only numbers we had."

The city's own tracking since 2003 shows average absenteeism due only to illness fluctuated slightly from 9.7 days in 2003 to a high of 9.9 in 2005 and a low of 9.4 in 2006.

Workers at the Dearness Home for the Aged had the highest rate of absenteeism, including for illness and disability, at 35.3 days a year, at least in part because they're discouraged from working with minor illnesses, such as colds, and because of heavy lifting.

Outside workers averaged 27.8 days absent last year, followed by firefighters and inside workers averaging about 16.8 days per year.

Managers averaged about 11 days absent last year.

Since February, the city has taken several measures to curtail absenteeism, including the hiring of the attendance specialist, now underway, a new management program to track and flag worker absenteeism and a process to help employees with poor attendance.

A tentative contract agreement between the city and its 750 inside workers lowers to three days from five the time a worker can be off sick without a doctor's note.

Joe Belanger is a Free Press reporter.

E-MAIL: Joe Belanger