Public service absenteeism costs province $26M per year
Posted Sep 10, 2014 12:35:24 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
MLAs met with members of the Public Service Commission at Province House today to discuss overtime costs to government at the standing committee on public accounts.
According to Public Service Commissioner, Laura Lee Langley, there’s a correlation between overtime and absenteeism in Nova Scotia — and both come with some pretty big price tags.
Absenteeism costs the province about $26 million per year.
“There’s not many stones left unturned in terms of where we can save money, and where we can reduce our costs,” she said.
Langley said the absenteeism rate in public service is 12.65 days per employee, per year.
“In terms of how public sector absenteeism is recorded, we’re feel that we’re fairly consistent. We want that number to be lower.”
The top departments with the most overtime expenses are Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, Community Services, and Justice — the latter weighing in with $4.5 million in overtime for 2013-2014.
