A SENIOR city councillor claims some council staff are "taking the proverbial" by skipping work while pretending to be ill.
Cabinet member Councillor John Hewitt spoke out after a new report revealed sickness rates at the authority are on the increase again.
Figures for the period between last October and December show the council's overall staff attendance rate was 94.1 per cent.
Officials say if the trend continues, the annual rate for 2012-13 will be the equivalent of every employee at the council being off sick for 13 days over the past 12 months.
The report also puts the approximate annual cost of sickness absence at the council at £4.8m.
Councillor Hewitt, who is portfolio holder for neighbourhoods and communities, said getting a grip on the sicknote culture at the council was long overdue.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting, he said: "The amount of money we are spending on sickness absence does worry me because having £4m in our coffers to spend on something else would be absolutely tremendous.
"The fact is, we have got agency workers on overtime covering for absent staff, which only makes it worse.
"I know some of our staff feel people are taking the proverbial by going on sick for the slightest excuse.
"I really believe we should be tackling this issue once and for all to sort out the wheat from the chaff."
The council has been struggling to reduce sickness rates in recent years.
Last year, council leader Councillor Steve Brady admitted being "frustrated" over continuing high levels of long-term sickness cases at the authority.
He also compared the council with the private sector where the national average is 6.4 days per staff member.
He said: "I have worked in the private sector and there is a different attitude to getting people back to work after being off sick.
"I'm not saying rush everyone back but something is not right when the sickness rates are still way above what they are in the private sector. There shouldn't be a difference at all."
The new report says short-term absences increased at the end of last year because of a correspondingly high number of diarrhoea and vomiting bugs and viral infections among staff.
It also forecast more staff going off sick with stress-related illnesses because of the number of internal service reviews currently being carried out as a result of funding cuts.
It adds: "The council is restructuring and attendance is often impacted during reorganisation. As such, we may see a decline in attendance and increased likelihood of staff affected by stress-related absence.
"Costs of covering absent staff will be incurred."
The report also reveals six staff were dismissed between October and December due to long-term sickness absence.
Cabinet members heard that Brendan Arnold, the council's director of resources, said the authority was reviewing its sickness absence policies.
