Plymouth City Council workers take the equivalent of 331 years of sick leave each year, with social services staff among the sickliest employees.

Plymouth's level of sick leave is much higher than the national average for local government employees.

Between 1999 to 2000 local authority staff took an average of 9.6 days off sick each. But in Plymouth the average was 15.6 days off a year for each member of staff, at a cost to council tax payers of more than £2m a year.

Plymouth staff took a staggering 7,181.27 days off sick in just one month last year, a new report reveals.

If taken as an average, it amounts to a total of 86,172 days off sick taken by staff across the year - equivalent to 331 years of working days.

On an average day at the city council last October, between 320 and 330 of its 5,528 central services staff were off sick.

The department with the worst record is social and housing services where the 1,890 staff took a total of 3,412 days off sick last October.

City Council leader Patrick Nicholson has now vowed to crack down on anyone taking off time when not genuinely ill.

The level of sickness will be discussed by the authority's policy and resources committee today as part of a review of services to tackle the council's budget crisis.

Closing the council's £20m budget gap could also mean the loss of up to 400 jobs, a review of the future of more than 1,000 council buildings and a freeze on overtime.

Councillor Nicholson said: "The culture of sickness within the city council has been allowed to grow to the extent where it is costing the council £2m a year, this will not be allowed to continue.

"In recent weeks we have seen the first sacking because of unnecessary sick leave and I am prepared to see this continue.

"The level of sick leave within the city council is much higher than any other local employer or in any other local authority.

"People who are genuinely ill have nothing to fear, but those taking casual sick days with no regard for the city will not be tolerated."

He added people on long-term sick leave could be in line for investigation.

Union leader Tony Staunton, Plymouth branch secretary of Unison, has branded the crackdown a "witch hunt" and claimed staff were being forced to take days off because they were over-worked and suffering from stress-related illnesses.

"People who work for the council are not skivers. They are skilled people who could get better jobs and more money elsewhere, but have chosen to work for public services.

"Councillor Nicholson is turning on the workers, who are having to work longer and harder, while cutting front-line services to people in need. It's a witchhunt."

Used courtesy of the Plymouth Evening Herald