Union leaders claim stressed city council staff were working in a “pressure cooker” environment due to council cutbacks.
The number of instances involving council staff taking time off work for psychological reasons, including stress and depression, increased from 51 in December to 77 in February.
Unions and opposition councillors have blamed the controversial restructuring of the council to cut £125million in five years.
The council has confirmed that 370 posts will go through transfers and not recruiting for vacant roles as well as offering voluntary redundancies and early retirement.
But the authority has said in a report that the rising numbers of staff absence incidents was to be expected due to the dark nights and colder weather.
Yesterday union chiefs and councillors convened at the authority’s staff governance committee.
Unison’s Kenny Luke said staff morale was at its lowest in the 26 years he had worked at the authority.
He said: “We know that many of our members are struggling with the impact of work on their mental health.
“We’d like to see an action plan specifically for tackling mental health issues. Over the last 12 months or so we’ve seen this atmosphere developing which has turned the council into a pressure cooker of overworked, underpaid, and undervalued staff whose mental health is suffering for it.”
And Mike Middleton of the GMB union said: “One of the things that keeps Aberdeen City Council going is staff good will and that is running short.”
Liberal Democrat councillor Ian Yuill said he had heard from several trade union colleagues that the council’s actions were causing low morale and damaging people’s mental health.
He said: “If we were damaging people’s physical health then we would be moving heaven and earth to stop that.”
Council officers told the committee there a range of measures were being undertaken with staff including the offer of a support service and mental health risk assessments.
Committee chairwoman Yvonne Allan said: “I appreciate change can be difficult for some however the council must change if it is to continue delivering good quality services.”
