By Julian Knight BBC News Online personal finance reporter

Employees in the council's Adult Services Division - bureaucratic speak for social workers - will have their sick calls rerouted to a call centre in Hammersmith, West London.

Their calls will be answered by a team of nurses who will quiz them about their reasons for absence and suggest treatment.

And out-of-hours sickness callers will not avoid the telephone inquisition.

Sickness calls received in the dead of night will be returned during office hours by one of the team of nurses.

Bosses will receive email or text alerts telling them their subordinate has rung in sick, and when they are likely to return to work.

If the system can allow people who are ill to get real help while putting off people who aren't sick from taking time off, then that will be a result Stephen Forrest, City of York Council

However, the reason for the absence will not be given without the permission of the caller.

The big idea is to get people back to work sooner and help the council understand better why its employees are taking time off.

Harrowing situations

By the standards of both the private and public sectors, City of York's Adult Services Division has an absenteeism problem.

The 1,000 people in the division take on average 28 days a year off sick, a figure four times the national average.

"The jobs they do are very stressful. They have to cope with vulnerable people and harrowing situations," Stephen Forrest, the council's human resources manager, told BBC News Online.

"We have an issue with long-term sickness and we hope the provision of early medical advice will cut such absenteeism."

Mr Forrest added that he hoped the service would deter bogus absenteeism.

"If the system can allow people who are ill to get real help while putting off people who aren't sick from taking time off, then that will be a result."

Active Health, the firm managing the scheme, claims that their call centre can cut absenteeism by 30%.

The UK has been cutting its procurement and energy costs in recent years but not absenteeism Haakon Overli, Active Health

Transport firm Pickfords and Kingston Communications have already signed up for the service and Active Health confidently predicts it will soon secure more deals with the public sector.

After all, cutting public sector costs is a political "hot potato", with both the Labour and Conservative parties busy trumping one another with money-saving proposals.

"We have a roll to play where there is a high cost for absence, such as a driver ringing in sick leading to a perishable cargo spoiling, or a social worker being off causing a delay in case handling," Haakon Overli, Active Health business manager, said.

"The UK has been cutting its procurement and energy costs in recent years but not absenteeism.

"The private and public sector has to come to grips with the fundamental issue of how to make sure employees turn up for work."

Pro-active

Sick leave - real and feigned - currently costs UK businesses an estimated �11bn a year.

But according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) absence from work has fallen slightly since the late 1980s.

"There has been a decline in the number of manual jobs and these occupations traditionally have higher rates of sickness," Richard Dodd, spokesman for the CBI, told BBC News Online.

"After all, it is easier to work with a head cold in an office than on a building site.

"Overall, firms are taking a more pro-active approach to dealing with absenteeism and monitoring their employees more effectively."

The most effective methods of tackling the problem include return-to-work interviews and ensuring employees make contact with a senior manager when reporting their absence, Mr Dodd added.

CBI research indicates that small firms, where an employee calling in sick often has to talk to the owner, suffer far less absence than large firms.

In addition, the research suggests that the often-expressed view that the public sector has a significantly greater sickness problem than the private sector is too simplistic.

On average, public sector workers take two days extra sick each year than their private sector counterparts, but when local and central government is compared to large employers then the gap disappears.

However, Mr Dodd believes that the modern curse of workplace stress cited by Mr Forrest of City of York Council is a bit of a red herring.

"In any list of reasons for absence stress is a long way down. Our research suggests that 15% of all absences are due to skiving."

'Stunts'

In May, Tesco grabbed the headlines by piloting a scheme where sick pay would only be paid if employees were off for more than three days and provided a doctor's note.

Recently, the Post Office and BA announced they would use prize draws and bonuses respectively to encourage workers to take fewer days off sick.

Mike Emmett, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) employment relations adviser, sees incentive schemes as tinkering at the edges of a larger problem.

"These schemes are stunts and they carry the danger of being perceived as unfair by staff."

"Why should being genuinely off sick bar you from claiming extra pay or a prize," Mr Emmett said.

As for the City of York council experiment, Mr Emmett sees it as indicating management failure.

"You wouldn't normally substitute line management for a helpline. Overall, I am sceptical that this approach will produce any deep insight into why absence occurs."

"But perhaps it will send out a warning shot to staff that the problem is being taken seriously. In my experience, the best way to fight absence is to ensure work is attractive and people are part of a team."

Your comments:

It's a management problem. Managers at all levels need to be trained and retrained until the problem of absenteeism is resolved. Bullying staff is not the solution neither is incentives to attend work. Incentives to turn up when you are genuinely sick helps no one and in some instances can spread infection, or make a bad situation even worse. Good management is about finding solutions that help and support staff who are going through difficult times. Everyone at work wants to do a good job and be appreciated, but sometimes situations are beyond our control and we need genuine support. It has to be the kind of support that is skilled and appropriate. Support that does not reflect badly on us when the annual review comes round. Some employers have got the message and treat their staff with respect and consideration, whilst others still have a long way to go. Good employers benefit from staff who care about their jobs, employees want to do a good job and they want to be appreciated.
Les Wortley, Manchester UK

The notion that excessive or invasive monitoring of staff absence will help employers to reduce sickness absence is doubtful. Skiving, particularly in social work, which is by its nature an altruistic profession, is unlikely to be a key cause of absence. There is a difference between skiving and not feeling able to attend work. Employers should worry less about the absence and more about addressing the causes of absence - anxiety, stress, musculoskeletal disorders etc. This way preventative/remedial action can be taken to improve working conditions and increase social support, and absence could be nipped in the bud.
Duck, London, UK

There isn't a huge problem with absenteeism in the private sectors because people know they'll be out of a job. It's the lazy public sector workers that get away with everything that give us all a bad name.
Monique, London

We are often reminded how much unpaid overtime UK employees are expected to work, especially in the private sector where this is seen as beneficial to promotion. Now we have bosses telling us that absenteeism is excessive. In my view the world, one probably cancels out the other. How many managers have thought of this?
Paul Stead, Glossop, Derbyshire

28 days a year sick on average! It is a wonder that any of them are still alive. If people ask why is council tax so high the answer is not too hard to find.
Ian, UK

Monique of London, please don't tar us all with the same brush. I work for the public sector and haven't had a day off sick for three and a half years. I've never thrown a sickie in my life and wouldn't dream of doing so !
Tony, Ipswich, UK

I am a 'lazy' civil servant, and maybe the absenteeism/sickness records in the public sector would be improved if we felt valued for the hard work we do, and did not have to encounter on a daily basis people who think all we do all day is drink tea and surf the net.
Alison, Blackpool, Lancs