One in ten Manchester Council staff on long term sick leave

An article in the Daily Telegraph highlights the extent of sickness leave among (Labour) Councils in the Greater Manchester area. Manchester Council has the highest nukber of staff on long term sick leave (2,544 staff out its 25,000 taking more than three consecutive weeks.) Tameside Council had 982 out of 9,000 staff taking long term sick leave. Salford Council staff take an average of 13 days off a year - twice average in the private sector.

The Telegraph quote a professor saying those in large organisations feel it "doesn't matter." But there are plenty of large organisations in the private sector. As stated earlier I strongly suspect the problem is the craven attitude to the trade unions - particularly in Labour Councils. The unions are funded with full time people - who then run rings around the Human Resources Department stringing out disciplinary cases,