BRUM ACCUSED OF “COOKING THE BOOKS” ON SICKIE CULTURE

14-05-2008

Birmingham City Council has been accused of cooking the books to make it’s figures for absence look better than they really are. Labour leader Sir Albert Bore says he’s “querying the maths”.

Bore has the monthly breakdown for the financial year 07/08 and claims it doesn’t match the Council’s claim that staff sickness average of 9.89 days per employee.

He suspects it’s worse than that, and points out, “In any case it’s certainly higher than when we left office.”

At the turn of the century, of course, when Labour ran the Council, absences averaged 19 days per year, but had improved significantly by the time they were deposed in 2004.

What’s particularly worrying for the current administration is that the trend has been upwards for five of the six months to April.

A Council spokesman pointed out that Birmingham’s absence rate is better than the average for Britain’s other core cities (9.89 days compared to 11.07).