Days off work cost council £13,000

MORE accidents and days were lost off work at West Dorset District Council than any other of the neighbouring councils resulting in thousands of pounds of taxpayers money lost.

A new report released last week by the council revealed staff took almost 318 days off work due to accidents in 2008/09, three times more than the council’s target of 110.

Based on the average salary of a manual employee, the days off work have cost the council £13,000.

The report published by the Audit Governance Committee showed in 2009 alone, staff were involved in ten significant accidents and one major incident, in which a binman broke his wrist after tripping on a manhole cover. He was absent for 55 days.

In another incident, one person fell 1.5 metres off a tailgate suffering a strained shoulder, resulting in them being off work for 92 days.

For 2008/09 the council’s accident rate was 2.25 per 100 staff, and the average number of days lost to each accident was 21.5. In East Dorset the average number of days lost is 7.5 and 6.2 in Weymouth and Portland.

The report said several accidents relate to poor planning and supervision. Most accidents involved inappropriate systems of work which were classified as management failures.

District council chief executive David Clarke said: “In recent years the district council has introduced a recycling service. This has increased the number of staff working on tasks where there is an increased likelihood of accidents associated with slips, trips and manually carrying boxes and bags.

“On a daily basis the staff manually lift tonnes of waste and recycling materials. The staff work in areas where there are no pavements and the ground is often wet and slippery. The council is working to reduce the number of accidents.”

The council said it has improved vehicles to minimise refuse handling, introduced nationally recognised NVQ training for staff and is working with the Health and Safety Executive to improve the quality of training materials available to the waste and recycling industry.

It has also suspended the collection service in snow and icy conditions and provided high quality protective clothing such as cut proof trousers and Kevlar gloves.

A council spokesman said: “We have looked at employer liability claims history from 2000-01 to 2009-10 and over this period there have been between zero and up to three claims per financial year. The council’s insurers have settled claims in any instance where liability is accepted with no direct cost falling to the council.”