ANYONE "swinging the lead" instead of being genuinely too ill to work will be handed their cards.

That's the tough promise of town hall bosses after staff clocked up the equivalent of 88,413 sick days last year.

This equates to 15.47 days for each employee, only a fraction down from the previous year's 15.58, placing Bury in the bottom quarter of councils.

Mr Arthur Withington, an independent member of the standards committee, told Wednesday's (Dec 18) executive that previous attempts to reduce absence had failed. He wanted to know whether the council had given up, or if it had any new plans.

Councillor Wayne Campbell, deputy council leader, said sickness absence not only cost the council, but put an additional burden on staff who were in work.

"Our new occupational health service is starting in January, and we're carrying out audits to see where the sickness lies and how we can resolve it. But we have got the political will to take on anybody who abuses it."

Mr Mark Sanders, chief executive, said: "Bury's level of sickness absence is unacceptably high compared to our neighbours, and we have got to tackle the culture that surrounds it.

"If one or two people are abusing the system, they will no longer be employees of this council."