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Cardiff council workers will not be paid for the first three days they are off sick under new proposals to tackle the authority’s sick note problem.

Employees at the authority – the largest in Wales – averaged 11.49 days off in 2011/12, costing the council £15.1m in sick pay and a further £1.7m hiring agency staff as cover.

The worst absence rate is in the city’s waste collection and street cleansing teams, where employees are this year averaging about 25 days off because of illness.

The UK average for length of sickness absence in 2011 was 4.5 days, according to the Office for National Statistics. The most common reason given for sickness was a minor illness like a cold or flu.

If the changes are approved, council staff would not be paid for three days each time they are off sick.

Unions representing council staff say they will fight any attempt to stop payments to ill employees. But the councillor who led an inquiry last year into the city’s high sickness absence rate said managers had warned the system was being abused by some.

The crackdown on sick days is proposed in the Labour-run council’s draft Attendance and Well Being Policy, which is subject to consultation with trade unions.

It comes two and half years after the authority was ranked the third worst authority in the UK for sickness absence in a newspaper survey.

Sick days peaked at 13.27 for every council worker in 2007/08, but the figure has steadily declined. In 2010/11, 108 staff were sacked because of their absence records.

The new proposals will apply to all council employees, irrespective of status or pay grade, except those employed directly by schools. Non-payment for the first three days excludes teachers.

After the three unpaid days, workers still off ill will be eligible for sick pay from the fourth day so long as they have fully complied with sickness reporting procedures, according to the draft policy.

Conservative councillor David Walker, who chaired the inquiry into attendance, said that when combined with annual leave some council staff were off 10 weeks a year.

“When you talk to the senior managers of these departments they are concerned about the situation. They are concerned that some are taking advantage of the system,” Coun Walker said.

“When Christmas bonuses were being paid they found everyone was present, but as soon as that was taken away the absence rate shot up – there are trends that when extra pay is on offer everybody is in.”

Coun Walker, who stopped short of endorsing plans to withhold pay, said there should also be increased support for employees suffering genuine illnesses, saying: “We don’t want to condemn everybody.”

Unison regional organiser Steve Belcher predicted council staff – who are three years into a pay freeze – would be furious at the plans.

“We will resist this, it’s not something we can agree with. It’s there as a current term and condition they enjoy and they would be angry if it was withdrawn,” he said.

“As a union the last thing we want is for our members to be off sick, but at the same time we want the support mechanism in place so that they recover and get back into work as soon as possible.”

Mr Belcher denied there was a “sick note culture” at the council, saying: “For the most part people do not take advantage of the system and quite often come in when they are not well to ensure the service they deliver continues.”

The danger of the proposals, he said, was that ill staff would continue to work when their chances of making a full recovery would be better at home.

Councillor Ashley Govier, Cabinet member for environment, said the waste collection and street cleansing teams within his department were averaging 25 sick days per employee.

“I know that they do work in slightly difficult conditions, but we need to get that down,” he said.

But GMB branch secretary Kenny Daniels – who said his union would vehemently oppose the change – said: “Of course sickness absence levels are going to be higher for somebody working in waste collection compared to someone in an office – they shift 30 tonnes a day in all weather conditions.”

Under the proposed changes, managers who do not properly manage sickness absence could face disciplinary action. The number of formal stages of the sickness absence procedure is also slated to reduce from four to three.

Councillor Russell Goodway, Cabinet member for finance, will present the proposals to the Policy Review and Performance Scrutiny Committee tomorrow.

A council spokeswoman said the management of sickness absence was a “high priority” for the Labour administration and it was looking at ways to improve sickness absence levels.

“We have consulted widely with senior managers, service managers, our five staff equality networks, trade unions and scrutiny. Following consultation with scrutiny, we will then be in a position to finalise proposals to be considered by Cabinet on December 6,” she said.