Australia checks in on sick government workers
Under a NSW Government plan in Australia, public servants have to call a private nurse when calling in sick. The first group of workers affected by this are bus drivers. This is a negotiated point in recent discussions to deliver a 4 percent wage increase to public workers. Read the entire article here.
The issue is that public servants historically take more sick days than private workers. In a 2 week period measured in 2003, 9.5 percent of public workers took a sick day while only 6.1 percent of private workers did. The NSW believes that reducing the sick leave public workers take by 1 day would save taxpayers $45 million.
Along with the alert to the employer that the employee is ill, the nurse gives out health advice to the employee. It is believed that the same people are consistently taking the time off.
Is this something for all future organizations private and public?
