BURY is still on the national sicklist when it comes to council staff being absent due to illness.

Local authority workers still take more days off than the national and regional average, despite recent measures designed to improve attendance.

The latest figures show that the absence rate for officers is 4.6 per cent, for manual workers 6.4 per cent, and for teachers 3.2 per cent. These have remained largely unchanged over the last two years.

The most recent survey by the CBI shows that the average absence levels for white-collar workers was 6.8 days, while in Bury Council it is 9.7 days. Manual workers, meanwhile, take 10.8 days off due to sickness while in Bury they have 12.9 days.

Personnel bosses hope that the measures they introduced recently will start to make a difference. These include self-certification for all sickness absences, and sending people who have been off for six weeks to the occupational health unit, along with more management training.

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