A TaxPayers' Alliance investigation has uncovered that council staff have lost 23 million days due to sick leave, of those 6.5 million days were lost due to mental health.
Speaking to the Telegraph, which published these findings, our investigations campaign manager, Joanna Marchong. said:
"Taxpayers are fed up with council staff treating sick leave like an extended holiday on the public purse.
“Sick leave rates in the public sector are consistently higher than in the private sector, and now ‘mental health’ is fast becoming the latest catch-all excuse for shirking responsibility.
“Townhall bosses need to make sure that those that take sick leave have verifiable and legitimate reasons to take time off.”
Read the full story here.