MORE action is needed to tackle high sickness rates among York council workers, opposition leaders have claimed.

David Scott, leader of the Labour group on City of York Council, says the number of health-related absences is still too high, despite a slight reduction over the past 12 months.

In one council department, housing and adult social services, each worker is off ill for an average of 21 days a year - more than four working weeks.

The council has agreed to adopt a new approach to reducing staff sickness levels, but a report to the ruling executive says it could be "a number of years" before this yields results.

Coun Scott said: "Staff sickness in some directorates is a problem that persists, seemingly in spite of efforts made to reverse the trend. Council-wide last year we saw more than 2.5 weeks taken off work through sickness per employee on average, although this hides far worse problems in certain directorates such as housing and adult social services, where last year the average was more than four weeks per employee.

"This 21 days illness is almost as much as the 24 days leave entitlement per employee, which is staggering.

"The council needs to be looking at taking great strides in this area and I would like to see this level approaching the average level for the council, and if that requires looking at the overall management of the directorate then it should happen."

Coun Scott said: "This year, while some improvements have been made, sickness levels when compared to this time last year have got worse in the neighbourhood services, chief executive's and resources directorates.

"The inclusion of the latter two is a worry as they were the best performing in terms of sickness levels, yet now they look to be heading in the wrong direction.

"It is easy to be complacent and see these days absorbed, but the outcome is a worse service to residents.

"Given consecutive high council tax rises, this is not what they deserve. Management need to work with the unions and employees to eliminate the causes of sickness absences as well as work towards reducing sickness absence."

A spokeswoman for the ruling Liberal Democrats said council leader Steve Galloway would speak about the issue of staff sickness levels at Tuesday's executive meeting.

The update on staff sickness levels is included in a quarterly monitoring report to the executive.

The report says that overall, the council's performance is improving across directorates, but it highlights various issues of concern, of which sickness levels is one.

Last June, The Press reported that the total sickness absence at City of York Council in 2006/07 was worth £6 million to the taxpayer.