A ROW broke out at Radcliffe Area Board over the number of sick days taken by Bury Council staff.

A member of the public took deputy council leader Wayne Campbell to task and condemned what he called the "lead-swingers" of the council.

But Coun Campbell described the remark as a "scandalous" accusation and said that the council was no different than any other organisation and was not in the business of punishing people for being genuinely ill.

"We are concerned about levels and will continue to monitor them," said Coun Campbell.

"We have already come up with a number of schemes aimed at finding out the reasons for sickness and how we can resolve them."

Figures show that between March 2001 and March 2002 Bury Council's workforce each had an average of 13.9 days off sick.

But a spokesman for the council said: "From April last year to April this year we have seen the average number of sick days per person fall to 13.2 which is quite a reduction.

"Clearly, we are looking at tackling sick leave and by 2007 we hope to reduce the figure of sick leave days to an average of 10.8 days which would be lower than the government's target figure of 11.4 days."

Chief executive Mark Sanders said: "We want to tackle absenteeism in a pro-active way. There is no sense in seeking to discriminate against those who are unwell but we want to get positive productivity from our staff."