Nurses to vet staff sickness at council

A council trying to reduce absenteeism is to force staff to speak to a nurse when they call in sick.

The occupational health nurses, based in a call centre, will dispense advice on how to treat symptoms in the hope workers will return as quickly as possible.

They will then alert the employee's boss, as well as collating statistics on sick leave.

The scheme, run by Active Health Partners, has cut absenteeism in Scandinavia and the US by a third and has already been adopted by a number of firms in Britain, but York city council is the first public body to adopt it.

Absenteeism in the council's 1,000-strong adult services department is almost double that for similar social services departments, costing ?2.3 million a year.

Stephen Forrest, York council's human resources manager, said: "Studies have shown that offering people advice and support in this way means that they are able to return to work more quickly."

Unison's Peter Household said: "Everyone has advice available from their own GP. The issue should be tackling the problems of the workload."