Cost of sick days 'is pounds 22.5m'.

TAXPAYERS are footing a pounds 22.5 million bill for employees at a Midland council to take an "unacceptable" number of sick days, it was claimed today.

Conservative councillors in Staffordshire have hit out at the Labour-run county council for "sitting on their collective hands" as local authority workers take high numbers of days off due to illhealth. Opposition councillors claim the average council employee takes between 10 and 11 days off sick each year, at an annual cost of pounds 22.5 million. A spokesman for council, which has 30,000 employees, said the Conservative group's figures were "way off the mark", adding that the average number of sick days taken has dropped in recent months.