77,500 sick days in one year for Scottish Government staff

Scottish Government staff are taking record numbers of sick days, according to new figures that have sparked a heated debate about its workplace culture.

Overall, employees called in sick on a total of 77,500 days last year – which is an average of 8.7 days off for each member of staff and also represents the worst rate of absence in the government’s history.

Official workforce statistics show the overall level of sickness absence among Scottish Government workers was 3.9% – more than double the 1.8% for staff across the private sector.

With the government spending £445 million a year on wages, the cost to taxpayers of civil servants’ lost working days amounts to an annual £17.4m.

Last night a civil service union blamed the Scottish Government for budget and recruitment costs that had left employees chronically overworked.

Ruby Gibson, Scottish Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union – which represents thousands of government staff – told The Sunday Post a significant proportion of absence was caused by stress and anxiety.

She said: “Many people are working in conditions where increasing and unrealistic workloads are the norm and in an environment of ever-changing ministerial priorities and restructuring.

“These factors create an impossible working situation of increased workloads and hours and ultimately result in burn-out.”

Campaigners and opposition politicians, however, claimed taxpayers were being short-changed by a sick-note culture within the civil service.

Elliot Keck, head of campaigns for the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “These figures are a damning indictment of the failing culture within the Scottish civil service, which is clearly a soft touch with staff feigning illness.

“While the UK is certainly a less healthy place than it was before the pandemic, this does not adequately explain the extraordinary gulf between sickness absences amongst Scottish bureaucrats and the rate in the private sector.

“There needs to be a concerted effort from top mandarins on the one hand to ensure the support is available to those who need it and, on the other, to crack down ruthlessly on those who abuse the generosity of Scottish taxpayers.”

The Scottish Conservatives’ shadow cabinet secretary for finance and local government, Craig Hoy, said: “It is alarming to see the number of sick days soaring in the SNP’s ballooning civil service.

“Either working for this out-of-touch SNP government is making them ill or the nationalists have long given up on cracking down on this culture. Whatever the case, there should be urgent action to improve productivity and ensure taxpayers are getting value for money.”

Earlier this month the government published its most recent workforce statistics, alongside comparable data stretching back more than a decade.

The figures show the size of the Scottish Government nearly doubled from 4,827 full-time equivalent staff in September 2012 to 8,917 in March this year.

The data also reveals a steadily increasing problem with sickness and absence.

In 2012, staff on average took 6.6 days off sick – with 3% of working days lost overall.

By March this year the rate had risen to a record 3.9% – far higher than elsewhere in the public or private sectors.

Earlier this month the Office for National Statistics published a report called Sickness Absence in the UK Labour Market: 2023 and 2024.

It concluded: “The sickness absence rate for public-sector employees in 2024 was 2.9% and for those working in the private sector it was 1.8%.”

The report stated: “Sickness absence rates for public-sector workers have been higher than those in the private sector for every year on record.”

Last night the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said the public sector should follow the lead of small private firms to ensure staff wellbeing and productivity.

Colin Borland, the FSB’s director of devolved nations, said: “These figures highlight just how important preventative measures are in any workplace to help ensure staff stay as healthy and motivated as possible.

“Small businesses are often, by their nature, close-knit teams where the owner has a personal relationship with those working for them, and that tends to foster a supportive working environment.”

Last night the Scottish Government said it was committed to staff wellbeing but also had robust human resources (HR) policies in place.

It said: “Sickness levels, trends and the causes of absence are closely monitored and the Scottish Government has robust policies and practices to support staff when on short and long-term absence.

“We are committed to the health and wellbeing of our staff. Scottish Government invests in support and training for line managers who play a critical role in facilitating a return to the workplace as soon as possible, alongside access to HR, occupational health and wellbeing services.”

66 officials paid more than £100k a year

A record number of Scottish Government civil servants are being paid more than £100,000 a year.

On Thursday, Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee unveiled a blueprint for the reform of Scotland’s public sector, explaining that “despite investment increasing, public satisfaction with public services has fallen”.

However, last September, The Sunday Post revealed that a growing number of the senior civil servants are pocketing six-figure salaries.

According to the Scottish Government annual list of Senior Civil Service (SCS) roles and salaries, 66 staff are taking home in excess of £100,000.

As well as the head of the health department, whose salary is listed as between £200,000 and £205,000, two other staff earn over £150,000, and a further eight civil servants earn between £120,000 and £150,000 a year.

A lower tier of officials – each earning between £100,000 and £120,000 a year – are classified as directors.

The overall wage bill for the 66 senior civil servants now tops a whopping £7.5m.

In 2021, only 38 government officials were listed as earning over £100,000 a year.

Office return rule ‘an attack on our rights’

Civil servants employed by the Scottish Government have been ordered to turn up at the office at least two days a week.

Since the pandemic in 2020, working from home or hybrid working has been the default option for many staff.

But from October, staff must physically go to their designated workplace for a minimum of 40% of their hours.

They must hit the target averaged throughout the month, so some weeks could be spent entirely working from home as long as the required office hours are made up in other weeks.

The edict has sparked complaints from some civil servants about the cost of more frequent commuting.

Some have raised concerns about the environmental impact of driving themselves to work while others have warned the order to return to the office is “an attack on their human rights”.

But the government said the move would help improve working relations.

A spokesperson explained: “Our updated approach will expect people to work 40% of their time in person from October.

“The approach aims to strengthen working relationships and it will offer additional support and development to the third of Scottish Government colleagues who have joined post pandemic and have had reduced opportunities to network, develop and connect in person.”

Labour urges cutbacks on mandarins

The Scottish Government is facing demands to reduce the “bloated” size of the country’s civil service after staffing figures reached a record high.

New figures show the number of people working in the devolved public sector soared to 27,400 in the first quarter of 2025.

By comparison, the number employed in 1999 at the outset of Scottish devolution was 14,100.

The civil service includes 8,917 Scottish Government core staff, agencies and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Scottish Labour finance spokesperson Michael Marra said: “Frontline services are stretched to breaking point and NHS staff numbers are falling amid a deadly crisis.

“But the SNP is sparing no expense on its own bloated operation. It is desperately out of touch with the priorities of the people of Scotland.”

According to the Scottish Government, the civil service has grown to deliver devolved powers and manage the implications of Brexit.

It said: “Public-sector workers have a vital role in the funding, development and delivery of key services ranging from education, health and social care, to transport and safeguarding the natural environment – also providing impartial expert advice to the public, parliament and ministers.”

OPINION: Ever increasing workloads are to blame for this burn-out

By Ruby Gibson, Scottish Secretary of the PCS union

The rising absence rate in the Scottish Government does not come as a surprise to the PCS union. Not only is absence rising, but there is a continual increase in workers on long-term sick leave.

PCS represents thousands of staff in the Scottish Government and they care deeply about their jobs and are proud of their work.

However, there are many structural problems in the government as an employer that are affecting the health and wellbeing of staff – with 20% of absences due to stress and anxiety.

Many people are working in conditions where increasing and unrealistic workloads are the norm and in an environment of ever-changing ministerial priorities and restructuring. This is exacerbated by headcount reductions and recruitment controls the government has implemented over the last few years.

These factors create increased workloads and hours and ultimately result in burn-out with a disproportionate effect on those living with disabilities.

The publication of the absence data comes at a time when the minister for public finance, Ivan McKee, has announced a strategy for public sector reform and has committed to slashing £1 billion in costs across government and public bodies over five years.

Whilst PCS supports a civil service built on principles of agility and progress, the last 14 years of austerity has proven that you can’t do more for less and the cutting of public services, and the jobs of the people who provide them, does not deliver for Scottish people. It results in a perfect storm of ministerial commitments going unfulfilled, public services going undelivered and committed and hard-working staff being abandoned.

This data and the announcement to cut £1bn from the public sector should be a stark reminder for every person in Scotland. Behind the data and corporate terms such as “workforce headcount” and “fiscal sustainability” are people who go to their work to deliver public services for all of us. These are the people who helped keep the country running during the pandemic and who play a critical role in ensuring our roads, buildings and food supply chains are safe for ourselves, our families and our communities.

Overwork and burn-out are bad for workers, bad for public services and bad for Scotland. The PCS union is working to raise these issues to the Scottish Government to ensure the structural causes are resolved. Additionally, we will be campaigning to ensure that Scottish civil-service and public-sector jobs are adequately resourced and designed in a way that ensures workers are empowered to deliver high-quality public services.