The City of York Council has launched a new initiative designed to tackle absenteeism in its Adult Services Division, whereby a team of nurses will vet all sick calls.
All such calls will be rerouted to a call centre in Hammersmith, West London, where nurses will question reasons for absence and also suggest appropriate treatment.
Out-of-hours sickness callers will have their calls answered during working hours, and management will receive alerts when an employee makes a sick call. However, the reason for the absence will not be given without the permission of the caller.
It is hoped that these measures will work to counter bogus absenteeism, as well as give the Council a more accurate idea of sickness levels.
"We have an issue with long-term sickness and we hope the provision of early medical advice will cut such absenteeism," York Council human resource manager Stephen Forrest told the BBC. "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.
Sick leave, real and feigned, currently costs the UK an estimated £11 billion a year, but figures from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) indicate that the level has fallen notably since the late 1980s. On average, public sector workers take two days extra sick each year than their private sector counterparts.
Recently, Northampton Borough Council announced plans to cut sick days among its staff to an average of eight days a year by 2006, in light of concerns that absenteeism was costing an estimated £2 million every year.
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