Budva administration workers have apparently returned to their old habits - frequent absences from work. After reducing absenteeism by as much as a thousand days in 2023 compared to the year before, it seems that this was short-lived, and in 2024 sick leave took off again. This is confirmed by the latest annual report of the Secretariat for Local Self-Government of the Municipality of Budva submitted to "Vijesti", according to which almost a quarter of administration employees were on sick leave last year, for a total of 4.625 days, which is 600 days more than the year before.
According to the head of the General and Legal Affairs Sector at the Secretariat for Local Self-Government Gorice Zekic, As of December 31, 2024, 396 civil servants and state employees were employed in local government bodies and services, four of whom were on a fixed-term basis based on a mandate.
"Based on the submitted reports on temporary inability to work - sick leave, 91 employees in 17 administrative bodies and services of the Municipality of Budva were absent from work on this basis in 2024. This is 23 percent of the total number of employees, with an average absence of 50,83 days per absent employee (total number of sick leave days/number of employees who used sick leave), or 11,68 days per employee (total number of days on sick leave/total number of employees)," Zekić stated in a written response to "Vijesti".
She emphasized that, if we take into account the report on temporary disability in 2023, we can conclude that there is an evident increase in the number of employees on sick leave, by 5,41 percent.
"This represents a serious problem, because it significantly affects the absenteeism of employees in the Municipality of Budva," said Zekić.
Recall that in 2023, 4.095 days of sick leave were accrued, but then the number of employees was 40 fewer than now, according to official data.
"As of December 31, 2023, 353 civil servants and state employees were employed in local government bodies and services, of which six were employed for a fixed term, based on their mandate. Based on the submitted reports on temporary inability to work - sick leave, 65 employees in 12 administrative bodies and services of the Municipality of Budva were absent from work on this basis in 2023. This is 18,41 percent of the total number of employees, with an average absence of 63,49 days per absent employee (total number of sick leave days/number of employees who used sick leave), or 11,6 days per employee (total number of sick leave days/total number of employees)," the response to "Vijesti" states.
In the Municipality of Budva, during 2022, 349 permanent employees, 97 of whom worked in 17 administrative bodies and services of the Municipality of Budva, were on sick leave for 5.066 days.
There was more absence from work in 2021, the year of the coronavirus pandemic, when as many as 5.386 days of sick leave were recorded. At that time, the Municipality employed 316 workers, or 80 fewer than now.
That year, out of the total number of employees on sick leave, 95 employees in 14 administrative bodies and services of the Municipality of Budva were absent from work on this basis, which is 30,7 percent of the total number of employees, with an average absence of 58 days per absent employee, or 18 days per employee.
The situation was no better in 2020. Then there were even fewer employees in the Municipality than last year. Then there were 308 of them working (88 fewer than now). However, they also used sick leave to the maximum, so in 2020 there were as many as 5.346 days of absence. There were 82 workers on sick leave, who were absent for an average of 65 days, more than two months. If we take the total number of employees, it turns out that each worker was on sick leave for as many as 17 days that year.
That it was similar in previous years is also confirmed by the fact that in 2019, when there were 316 full-time employees, local government workers were absent for a total of 5.141 days. That year, 88 of them were on sick leave, which is 28 percent of the total number of employees since then, with an average absence of 58 days per absent employee. The situation was no better in 2018, when also a quarter of the employees were on sick leave, and were absent from their workplace for as many as 6.197 days. At that time, out of 331 employees for an indefinite period, 85 used sick leave, i.e. were prevented from working prematurely - an average of 72 days per absent employee, i.e. 19 days per employee.
Since March 2022, in order to increase work discipline in the Municipality of Budva, new methods of recording absence from work have been applied with the aim of preventive action and reducing employee absenteeism. Since then, electronic records of attendance at work have been applied to all employees, in accordance with the Decision on Electronic Records of Attendance at Work, which regulates in more detail the method of implementing the system of electronic records of arrivals and departures from work.
Previously, workers were reported for suspicious sick leave
In 2021, the Secretariat for Local Self-Government also wrote to the Health and Sanitary Inspection of the Inspection Affairs Administration, in order to carry out inspection supervision and determine whether the health condition of a certain number of employees requires several months of treatment, or whether the selected doctors and/or medical commission were obliged to provide employees who were unable to work due to health problems with instructions to determine the degree of disability for the purpose of possible realization of a disability pension.
In 2021, health and sanitary inspectors from the Inspection Affairs Directorate issued misdemeanor fines to doctors at the Budva Health Center who issued sick leaves for nine municipal employees, because they found omissions in medical documentation.
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