SICKNESS and overtime payments were cut by £156,776 by Derry City Council over the past year.
A study comparing employee payments during the first six months of the financial years 2008 and 2009 revealed sick and overtime payments were slashed across a range of municipal departments.
The Council's sick pay bill was reduced by £71,139 over th
e year dropping from £290,035 to £218,896 (-24.53 per cent).
Only Environmental Health recorded an increase in 2009 with sickness payments rising from £1,960 to £3,294.
Elsewhere the staff sickie bill was cut substantially. Sick pay was cut from £29,829 to £8,237 (-72.38 per cent) in City of Derry Airport, from £13,367 to £3,252 (-75.67) in Finance and Human Resources, from £122,741 to £104,412 (-14.93 per cent) in the City Engineer's Department, from £100,112 to £86,134 (-13.96 per cent) in Development, from £13,110 to £11,862 (-9.52 per cent) in the City Solicitor's Department and from £5,123 to £762 (-85.13 per cent) in the Town Clerk's office.
The local authority's overtime bill was also down a significant £85,637 from £435,863 to £350,226. This marked a decrease of 19.65 per cent.
The vast bulk of the overtime savings came from the City of Derry Airport. Overtime payments were reduced there from £129,495 to £49,671 - a massive 61.64 per cent reduction - over the year.
Savings were also made in the City Solicitor's department, which spent £20,941 in 2008 and £14,280 this year - a drop of 31.81 per cent.
There were large increases in overtime payments in some departments including the Town Clerk's office (87.44 per cent) and Finance and Human Resources (43.58 per cent). But because of their small staffing levels this had no effect on the overall overtime bill.
The figures are contained in Derry City Council's Quarterly Corporate Review covering the first two quarters of 2009/10, which is before the Policy and Resources Committee tomorrow.
