Counselling stressed staff costs BBC £130,000 as sick days soar 30%

 
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Miranda Bryant13 March 2013

The BBC spent more than £130,000 on counselling for its staff last year as stress-related absences soared, new figures show.

The corporation said licence fee payers’ money also went towards providing staff with advice to deal with issues such as relationships, “life events”, family issues, immigration, debt and consumer rights.

Middle-ranking staff, whose salaries are between £35,000 and £53,000, took the most days off for stress related illnesses last year with a total of £1,540 absences between them, according to new findings from London Loves Business.

In comparison, those on the lowest salaries, of £19,000 to £27,000 a year, had a total of just 20 absences for those problems. Meanwhile, senior BBC managers took off 109 days for symptoms including stress, anxiety and depression.

Overall, the number of absences for stress, anxiety and depression soared by 30 per cent to 7,399 in the last financial year - up from 5,643 absences in 2010-11 - a freedom of information request by the Daily Mail found.

Over the last three years, the BBC also spent nearly £400,000 on a scheme called the Employee Assistance Programme which provides counselling for staff with stress.

A BBC spokesman said: “As a responsible employer the BBC takes the welfare of its staff extremely seriously. The costs provided relate to an annual fee for the BBC’s Employee Assistance Programme which provides free, independent and confidential information, resources and counselling on a wide range of work, family and personal issues.

“Counselling for work related stress issues accounts for a small proportion of the total fee. This service can be used by all BBC staff.”

She added that only 0.18 per cent of working days were recorded as lost due to stress, anxiety and/or depression between April 2011 and March 2012.

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