The shock figure comes from new sickness statistics that reveal a total of 300 years were lost in days off due to illness throughout the council.

And the average 15.74 days taken as sick leave by the borough’s 1,664 social services staff is only marginally worse than non-teaching education workers, with a figure of 14.38.

Union bosses say the numbers reflected the increasing pressures of the job, while council chiefs said employees’ sickness record was improving.

Dudley’s Unison branch secretary Steve Beardsmore blamed the council for the sick leave figures within social services.

“It’s the council’s own fault because they don’t allow people suffering from ill health to retire,” he said.

“There are a number of people who should have been allowed to go but have had to carry on working, even though they are not really well enough.

“Basically, unless you’re a chief officer, you have to be pretty much dead to be allowed to retire with ill health.

“With social services, there is also the aspect of working with the elderly, which means that even if you’ve just got a cold you have to take a day off in case you pass it on.”

Dudley Council spokes-man Nigel Newman said the authority was working hard to reduce the levels of sickness among social workers and that it was below the national average for the number of days lost per full time equivalent employee across the board, with an overall figure of 10.83 days off.

He said the overall figure had fallen for the last two years.

“Like virtually every other authority, Dudley’s highest level of sickness is among social care employees,” he said.

By Richard Williams

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