A crackdown has led to a dramatic drop in the number of sick days taken by Wyre Forest council workers – but it is still higher than absence in the private sector.

District council workers took an average 13.5 days off sick before – almost double the amount at privately-run firms, latest figures show.

Stress, sickness, bugs and flu are blamed for absences among staff working for the district council.

But the sickness record has now fallen to an average 8.8 days for each worker – compared to. 7.9 days average for private firms.

The latest figures show sickness levels among Wyre Forest council workers match those in other local authorities.

The council, which employs a total of 470 people, set a target to reduce absences by at least one day per employee to reduce levels to a maximum of 10.5 days sickness for each employee.

Absences have decreased for the year 2008/2009 from the 13.5 average the previous year.

Now officials hope that this can be further reduced to 8.5 days or fewer per person.

However, a report which will be discussed by members of the council’s corporate resources scrutiny committee on Thursday, shows the number of days attributed to long-term absence was 2,158 days, involving a total of 56 occasions.

There were also 58 referrals of occupational health.

When separating long-term absence from the short term, the absence rate dropped to 3.9 days.

Councillor John Campion, leader of Wyre Forest District Council, said: “Managers and employees have been working together and have consistently improved our absence rates. I congratulate them on reducing sickness absence by 25 per cent.”