Sick leave days fall for city of Portland employees, report says
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PORTLAND, Ore. - It's time for KATU's annual look at how much sick leave city of Portland employees use compared to the rest of American workers.
According to the Portland Bureau of Human Resources 2011 report, citywide sick leave usage fell dramatically the last two years to 7.9 days per employee, down from 9.48 days per employee in 2009.
According to a 2007 nationwide study, the average American worker took 5.6 sick days per year. However, stacking Portland's 2011 numbers against the 2009 numbers is like comparing apples to oranges, because two years ago the city began keeping track of sick leave usage through a new computer program, which excludes sick days taken under the Federal Family Leave Act. That FFLA allows employees to use sick time when on leave for the birth of a baby, to care for a family member, or for prolonged illnesses.
Before the 2010 data, protected Family Leave was lumped in with the overall average sick leave numbers. The Bureau of Human resources tells KATU it will take a few years under the new program to have a good collection of apples for comparison.
KATU has been tracking the city's sick leave usage since 1993, when the average city employee took 7.7 days of sick time. Over the years it increased to just over nine days in 2002. After a dip, it began creeping back up to the 2009 level of nearly nine and a half days.
The city says one of the reasons for the high sick leave use is its aging work force, with employees who are more prone to be gone. The city blamed the big jump in 2009 on the H1N1 flu and the city's instructions to sick employees to stay home to keep the virus from spreading.
In 2011 the bureau with the highest average sick leave usage was the Bureau of Purchases at 10.5 days. In City Commissioner Randy Leonard’s office sick leave taken: 3.2 days.
Traditionally, workers at Portland International Raceway have the lowest sick leave usage. In 2008, they used an average of just two sick hours. The new reporting system lumps the PIR employees in with the Parks Bureau, so it is not readily discernible whether they’ve continued their healthy trend.
Sick leave usage adds up to lost productivity. The 2011 average of 7.9 days multiplied over the city's 4823 employees, works out to over 38,000 sick days - in other words 152 years of lost productivity in 2011 when considering the city's 250 day work year. Under the 2009 numbers, which include Federal Family Leave, the lost productivity was 183 Years.
