Team 2 Investigates: Too much sick time?

PORTLAND, Ore. - Taxpayers help pay the salaries of City of Portland workers, but did you know on average they call in sick far more than other workers?

It is lost productivity at our expense.  For more than a decade, we found that City of Portland employees are using more sick time than the rest of us.

Back in 1993, the average city employee took 62 hours of sick time, or nearly eight days, a year.  That number steadily went up to a peak of 73 hours, or more than nine days, by 2002.  After a dip, sick usage turned up again last year to nearly 69 hours.

In contrast, the average American takes six unscheduled absences a year.  That is a 40 percent difference than what city employees take and that means productivity takes a hit.

With 4,740 city employees taking over 8 1/2 days of sick time last year, that means there were almost 41,000 days (about 163 years) of lost productivity overall. 

"It's really mind boggling to say you've got 163 years of lost productivity," said Yvonne Deckard, the city's Human Resources Director.  "I'm not even sure what I would do with that.  What the city is more interested in is can we get the services out to the people?"

Deckard said the city employees often call in sick because of the Federal Family Leave Act.  The city allows employees to use 40 hours of sick time a year to care for dependents.  Also, Portland has an aging work force that is more prone to be gone.

"A lot of our baby boomers will be actually retiring and we'll be hiring a younger workforce and I think you'll see a tremendous difference over the next five years in sick leave usage," Deckard said.

So which employees used the most sick time?

You might expect it to be police officers, who have stressful jobs.  However, Portland police officers take less leave than the average city employee.

City employees at Portland International Raceway used the least amount of sick time last year, an average of just over two hours.

At the top of the sick leave list for 2006 was the city's Maintenance Bureau.  Its more than 400 employees used an average of 12 days last year, largely because 64 employees were out for extended time for maternity and medical leave.

"It's an anomaly, hopefully it's an anomaly," said Susan Keil, Maintenance and Transportation Director.  "You don't want to experience that every year if you're an employer."

However, that does not explain why city employees as a whole use more sick time than the rest of America.

Now, we do need to note something about that figure of 163 years of lost productivity - that number would go down if we could somehow quantify the countless hours put in by managers and other employees who work overtime but are not entitled to compensation.