A NEW initiative to help public sector organisations manage absenteeism has been launched by the Government.

Dr Jack Cunningham, Cabinet Office Minister, said recent research had highlighted a problem.

He said: "It is a fact that sickness absence rates in the public sector vary quite considerably, not only between departments of single organisations but also between organisations operating in the same fields and with broadly similar workforces.

"It cannot be that staff in some public sector organisations are healthier than in others. It is more likely that some organisations manage attendance more effectively.

"The resource pack has been developed in consultation with the trade unions and it pulls together the best practice techniques and sets out what managers across the public sector can do to help increase attendance levels."

He said the pack is not about chasing staff back to work when they are still ill. Instead, it focuses on practical guidance and recommendations, including:

Improving health awareness, establishing good health and safety practices and making better use of occupational health professionals;

Promoting flexibility so that staff have an increased choice about when they work, so they can better balance the demands of work and home;

Increasing fairness so that staff at all levels in the organisation are treated the same;

Setting out the responsibilities of individual staff and line managers, based on openness and two-way communication.

Dr Cunningham said: "We have set targets to reduce sickness absence in the civil service by 20 per cent by 2001, and 30 per cent by 2003."

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