WORKERS at Oxford City Council are taking more than 11 sick days each year - the equivalent of having 25 full-time staff permanently off.

And despite the fact the council has improved its performance, it remains among the worst councils nationally.

On average each employee took 11.43 sick days in 2006/07, compared to 12.27 days in the previous year.

But opposition councillors, who have described the issue as an endemic problem, say more needs to be done.

Labour leader Bob Price said the council was failing to address the issue that was costing 20 or 30 jobs' worth of money each year.

He said: "The problem of sickness does not seem to have been tackled effectively by the measures brought in last year.

"Using an outside company to follow through people who have been sick, that has not been effective.

"What we're looking for is something more clear-cut about how they are going to tackle it."

Council leader John Goddard said he was not satisfied with the level of sickness.

He added: "More now is being done than ever before.

"It is built into managers' job requirements to actively manage sickness rates. The way in which it will get better in the end is down to active frontline management."

The city council's human resources business manager Sue Shutter said: "The council has implemented an absence policy and is working with staff, trade unions and managers to reduce sickness rates.

"We are also meeting with individual staff whose sickness level is higher than average to work out whether there are any issues we can resolve.

"Measures have included offering temporary changes to working hours, counselling and referrals to Occupational Health.

"We are working hard to reduce the sickness levels. The average cumulative figure for absence during April to December 2006 is 8.10 days which is down on previous years.

"We have a large operational workforce and we have to expect there would be sickness absence in these areas."