Sick days in the public sector are costing the Scottish tax payermore than (Pounds) 250m a year, it has been revealed. Absent Scottish Executive staff alone cost (Pounds) 3.4m a year. So are public sector workers sickly, swindlers or just plain lazy? Or is there something about working in the public sector that is causing staff to take almost 50per cent more time off than private sectorworkers?

Some blame poor management, job insecurity, or stress, whilst one Scottish expert points the finger at the attitude of the general public.

Last July Gordon Brown announced a huge cull of civil servants to try to release money for front-line services. The cuts envisaged by Brown would mean 84,150 civil service posts will go in England by 2008 and many others will be moved out of London.

The real figure he said, however, could be 100,000 as a result of similar measures in the devolved administration in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Recent announcements by Scotland's finance ministerTom McCabe will have done nothing to make public sectorworkers in Scotland feel more secure. He has promised to redirect (Pounds) 1.7bn from backroom bureaucracy to front-line services within four years. Mr McCabe said he could not rule out compulsory redundancies in his pursuit of a more "streamlined bureaucracy".

The public sector's poor record on absence predates any current insecurity about the future. Historically the government has been seen as a good employer. It has been able to boast of secure jobs with good pay and conditions.

But with the spectre of redundancies looming, rather than trying to impress the bosses, public sectorworkers are continuing to phone in sick. The figures may vary from one survey to the next but always the message is the same: public sectorworkers take more time off than those in the private sector.

Earlier this year the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found public sector workers took nearly 11 days (10.7) off sick last year, almost 50per cent more than the private sector.

A CBI survey this year came up with a similar disparity.

The latest figures, published by the Cabinet Office for Scottish Executive departments show that since devolution staff time off has risen sharply. In the latest full year, 35,615 days were lost to sickness in the Executive's core departments compared with 29,874 in 1999-2000.

The cost of absence in departments such as justice, health and agriculture has risen from (Pounds) 2.3m in 1999-2000 to (Pounds) 3.4m in 2003-4.

All of this makes embarrassing reading for a government which set a target six years ago of cutting average sick leave to 7.2 days.

The Chancellor feels that present sick leave arrangements in the civil service are "open to abuse".

As a result he announced a review of short and long-term sickness in July which last week announced its first recommendations.

The Ministerial Taskforce for Health, Safety and Productivity has recommended a more conservative target of 7.5 days off per person per year. To achieve this they suggest keeping tighter control over absence: knowing those who persistently take short periods of time off, challenging those who self-certificate formore than five working days at a time while offering support from occupational health experts.

It seems therefore that self-certification is here to stay. At the moment, 80per cent of sickness absences in the civil service are not subject to any formal medical certification. The British Medical Association, unimpressed with the amount of GPs' time is spent writing sick notes, has suggested total self-certification.

The SNP's Stewart Stevenson MSP argues uncertainty over the future of the civil service is to blame for lowering morale and making people less inclined to get out of bed in the morning. "When there is uncertainty there is always a hit on morale, " he said.

"When we have the First Minister refusing to be open about how many job losses there will be, then this will undoubtedly impact on morale and the number of sick days taken."

Mike Finlayson, chief executive of the charity Teacher Support Scotland, agrees that the issues are more complicated than public sectorworkers simply skiving off. But he believes that dealing with the public can be a big part of the problem.

"The public tends to be quite negative, hostile and aggressive.

Front-line public sector staff - teachers or social workers for example - are seen as legitimate targets because they work in officialdom. This has an effect on their self-esteem, health and well-being."

Finlayson also blames old-fashioned public sectormanagement and large, rambling, impersonal workplaces for the high figures.

"The public sector tends to employ large numbers of people and management is more remote and bureaucratic. The public sector also wants to control policy and practice and therefore everything is homogenised. The smaller-scale and more enlightened attitudes of many private businesses make them more employee-friendly, " Finlayson argues.

"The challenge for the public sector is to make their large bureaucratic institutions more flexible so that they can cater for the needs of the workforce."

Mike Emmott, an employee relations adviserwith CIPD, also suggested management in the public sector could be improved.

In services such as health and education, senior employees don't always emphasise the nontechnical aspect of their job, he said. "A head teacher is really a school manager but they may not realise this."

Both the CIPD and the CBI found stress to be the most common cause of illness among white collar workers after minor illnesses such as colds and flu.

Many in the public sectormay plead stress, but it is a controversial claim. A spokesman for shopworkers union USDAW said it was difficult to argue that public sector jobs were any more stressful than working on a supermarket checkout, handling large cash sums and dealing with interminable queues of customers. Smaller businesses often have to tolerate abuse from customers, and deal with shoplifters, he added.

Perhaps a more palatable explanation is the government's desire to be a good employer.

Emmott says: "The public sector aspires to be a 'good employer'.

This means there are generous provisions for sickness.

"In the public sector, if you have a long-term illness you can be in and out of work for over a year. The private sector would find a way of getting you off the books quickly."

Allan Hogarth of CBI Scotland says: "You can never eliminate people being ill. You can, however, provide sickness cover, medical intervention and rehabilitation when employees return." For less genuine cases, employers should look at morale in the workplace, he said. "Why is it that employees don't want to come in on a Monday morning?"

Other solutions recommended by the CBI and CIPD include return-to-work interviews, and involving occupational health professionals when managing long-term absence.

Meanwhile the private and public sector are increasingly looking to other solutions, such as cash bribes. British Airways is enticing employees with (Pounds) 1000 for those who manage a sick-free year, and Royal Mail is offering the chance to win a car, holiday voucher or weekend breaks to workers. Tesco has settled on a different strategy and decided not to pay employees for the first three days of absence.

Nevertheless with the University of Kent having identified a 10per cent drop in job satisfaction over the last decade it seems it's going to take more than prizes to motivate the British workforce.

Finlayson, however, warns against "the big stick approach" which attacks absence but not the reasons behind it. He says:

"Staff should not be allowed to do what the hell they like but you should identify why they are going off. They may be swinging the lead but there could be a personal or work-related problem that needs to be addressed."

Arresting the decline Last year Central Scotland Police held the title of Scotland's sickest force with each officer taking an average of 13 days' sick leave per year. By November they had almost halved that rate.

Deputy chief constable David Mulhern says: "We decided to reward those who did come to work.

"If you aren't off for two years you get two days' extra holiday. If you manage three years you get three days and if you manage four we'll give you a bonus day to make it up to a week."

The force also encourages staff to use physiotherapy and psychology services before problems escalate.

Previously, stress was the cause of 83per cent of long-term absence. Now victims of stress see a counsellor within seven days. Employees who have five absences over a year lose the right to self-certify.

"There is more support for people who are ill while those who made use of a system that wasn't well monitored are finding their actions scrutinised, " Mulhern said.