By ALBERTO ENRIQUEZ

Jackson County employees are taking sick leave at nearly double the average rate found in one national survey.

Employees use an average of about 10 sick days a year, compared with a national average of about 5, according to county figures.

The county released sick leave statistics Thursday in response to a Mail Tribune public records request. Some employees had told the newspaper that the county administration had made sick leave an issue in ongoing contract negotiations. The employees fear sick leave will be curtailed for all workers because of abuse by a few.

County officials expressed dismay about the leak of information about negotiations that both sides agreed would remain confidential.

"It's funny that you should ask, since both parties agreed that nothing would be said until we had an agreement," Jackson County Budget Manager Harvey Bragg said, declining further comment.

Lisa Logue, an organizer for the Oregon Public Employees Union, which represents Jackson County's 615 full- and part-time employees, also declined to comment on the issue.

"It's a bargaining rule that we will not speak," Logue said. "We have established a trust relationship. It would actually be an unfair labor practice for me to comment now."

In response to the Mail Tribune's request, the county administration produced a two-page document listing the county's sick leave policy and figures on the mean absence rate and the average number of sick days taken.

The mean absenteeism rate is calculated by dividing unscheduled hours missed from work by total hours worked. These unscheduled hours missed do not include vacation, legal holidays, jury duty and personal time.

Jackson County has calculated its employee absenteeism rate at 4.14 percent. Nationally, the average for all workers is 2.32 percent, based on a 1997 survey by CCH Inc. of 451 human resources directors.

Those absenteeism rates correspond to an average of 9.97 days missed yearly by each Jackson County employee. The national average is 5.59 days missed.

In responding to the public records request, Jackson County Counsel Arminda Brown said bereavement days may have accounted for a portion of the difference between the county employees' average and the CCH national survey average. Although the CCH

survey excluded bereavement leave from sick leave, the Jackson County payroll system did not allow for such a distinction.

The 1997 CCH survey was the seventh annual survey of unscheduled absences taken by the Riverwoods, Ill.-based corporation, a leading provider of employment, tax and legal information.

CCH spokeswoman Mary Dale Walters said absenteeism rates vary widely from industry to industry.

"Not surprisingly," Walters said. "The more sick leave an employer gives, the more sick days employees are likely to take. Retail employees tend to have very low rates because they get paid by the hour, and they don't get paid if they take a sick day."

Jackson County employees accrue 3.7 hours paid sick leave per full-time pay period, or about 12 paid days yearly. Additionally, they can accumulate days from one year to the next to a total of 1,088 hours (27 weeks).

The CCH survey found the national average for retail absenteeism was 2.09 percent or about five unscheduled days missed - up 28 percent from 1996.