Dudley Council staff sacked for taking 248 YEARS off in sick days

The revelation comes as new figures reveal sickness absence at the authority has risen to an average of two working weeks a year.

Council bosses said it was a 'last resort' to sack serial non-attendees and was only done when all other options had failed.

A total of 90,677.43 days were lost by workers taking sick days at the authority in 2014/15 – this is the equivalent of 248 years.

This works out as an average of 10.26 days per full-time equivalent (FTE) member of staff.

Council bosses today insisted they took action to reduce staff sickness levels and 'a small number' of workers had lost their jobs because of repeated absence.

Last year in the UK, the average worker called in sick four times.

The Dudley figures include both council and school staff. The council employs around 8,836 FTE workers. In the 2013/14 the sickness rate worked out as an average of 9.52 days per FTE member of staff

Councillor Judy Foster, cabinet member for corporate and customer services, said: "Our staff work very hard and frequently go above and beyond the call of duty to give the best possible service to the public.

"It is the mark of a good employer that we provide support for staff when they need it through sickness or other pressures which may impact on their work.

"However, in a small number of cases, and as a last resort we have had to end contracts where all other options have been explored and exhausted."

She added: "Dudley Council is dedicated to managing employee sickness through the implementation of an attendance management policy.

"In addition, the council is adopting a more comprehensive approach to managing attendance as part of a wider health, safety and wellbeing initiative which is being introduced in conjunction with our colleagues from public health.We will continue to work to reduce the level of sickness as much as possible, so we can provide the very best service to borough residents."

It comes after it was revealed 42 workers were sacked by Wolverhampton City Council last year for taking too many sick days.

More than 40,000 days were lost by staff taking sick days at the authority in 2014/15 – the equivalent of around 120 years of lost work.