Absenteeism at the City of Hamilton

As departmental budget presentations got underway on Monday we learned that although absenteeism rates have been dropping slightly each year for the past couple of years we still have a substantial problem facing us. The current rate is now 9.94 average sick days per eligible employee. In other words on top of allotted vacation days people for whatever reason are taking an extra 10 days off from their duties. That adds up in a major corporation like a city to tens of thousands of hours in cost. Some folks truly are sick, some need the time to deal with a sickness in the family and yet we all know people who figure weeks and months in advance where to take a strategic so called sick day to lengthen a long week or even a vacation. What to do about it this cost? Ward 4 Councillor Sam Merulla reminded the General Issues Committee that once upon a time Hamilton had an incentive program in place to discourage absenteeism. By unanimous vote the Committee approved a motion of Merulla's requesting staff go away and look at a potential revival of such a program in the future.
We also learned that over the next five years up to 42 per cent of existing Managers will retire compared to only 12 per cent of the non-management work force. Do we have a "human resources crisis" asked Ward 1 Councillor Brian McHattie that requires an extraordinary response? Staff will review the ramifications.
Finally on day one of these departmental budget deliberations we learned the number required to operate Public Works in 2012. The ask is for a 6.9 million dollar or 3.9 per cent increase over 2011 for a total allocation of 184 million bucks. Public Works of course is responsible for Transportation, Engineering, Strategic Planning, Cemeteries, Forestry, Traffic, Facilities Fleet, Forestry, Parks, Horticulture, HSR, Water, Storm and Waste Water. Yep Jerry Davis the General Manager has a lot on his plate. By the way Jerry I have some infrastructure that needs attending to, Mohawk running East from Garth to Upper James. Yikes, it's crumbling every day. But I digress. The budget process continues Thursday and Friday as we return to regularly scheduled meetings like Planning tomorrow. I will be tweeting highlights at Doug Farraway14.