A DEFIANT councillor who has refused to apologise for accusing staff of skiving today further stoked the row over his comments by claiming half of Burnley council workers who took time off were "swinging the lead" and saw sickness absence as a perk of the job.

The move came as it was revealed Independent Group leader Harry Brooks is to be called on to publicly apologise when a motion deploring his "outrageous and degrading" remarks is considered by his council colleagues.

Independent Group leader Harry Brooks angered staff last month when he attacked some stress-related time off, mainly by women workers, as "taking sickies."

Today he defended his remarks and said a national audit showed Burnley was one of the worst district councils in the country for sickness absence.

His comments came as Independent Socialist Andrew Holder announced he would put a motion to next week's full council meeting deploring councillor Brooks' original "outrageous and degrading" remarks about people who suffer from stress and calling on him to publicly apologise.

Coun Brooks' comments drew strong criticism from unions and from Burnley's Labour council leader Stuart Caddy and chief executive Roger Ellis, who distanced themselves from Coun Brooks' remarks and themselves apologised the staff. But today Coun Brooks said his comments were totally accurate, based on the council's own report on absence. He described as "a barefaced and ridiculous lie" a union claim that he had argued the council should not employ women.

He said only those staff who took "sickies" at the expense of conscientious workers and council taxpayers were the object of his scorn and if he had offended them he was delighted.

Coun Brooks added: "My own estimate is that in Burnley council the lead swingers account for roughly half the time taken off for what is supposed to be sickness.

"These employees, in effect, regard it as a perk of the job.

"That has always been the case, everyone knows it, the problem is not by any means unique to Burnley council though Burnley council is a particularly bad case of the "sickies" disease but, of course, one is not allowed to say so publicly.

"I will go on saying it openly and loudly and I will go on saying it."

Coun Brooks said a national audit of council sickness absence three years ago showed Burnley in 141st place in a league table of 151 authorities.

"There has been no improvement since then," he added.

Coun Holder, who quit Coun Brooks' Independent group and now sits as an Independent Socialist, said he saw Coun Brooks' remarks last month as a sexist attack aimed at people who suffered the potentially devastating stress condition.

Coun Brooks' attitude reminded him of the Great War general who refused to acknowledge combat fatigue or shell-shock, he added.

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