Derby City Council staff taking 50% more sick leave than before cuts

The average Derby City Council staff member took 11 days off sick

Staff at Derby City Council are taking 50% more sick leave than they were before austerity cuts began, according to figures.

A Derby City Council report said that on average each employee took 11 days off sick this year.

A cabinet member at the Labour-run authority said increased sickness was down to stress over extra workloads.

Staff will hear about more job losses later as next year's budget is set, the BBC understands.

The average number of working days per employee per year lost through sickness was 11.2, based on figures from the second quarter of 2014, compared to 7.4 in 2011/12.

Cabinet member for governance Baggy Shanker said the figures were not acceptable.

"There are a number of reasons I'm told why these figures are increasing from a previously good position and a lot of that is around stress existing members of staff are facing in their daily jobs," he said.

Nearly 450 staff have been made redundant over the last two years. About 100 of the redundancies have been compulsory.