Workers in the North-East took 8.4 million days off sick last year, costing the region's economy an estimated £600m, new figures reveal today.

The region's employees each took an average of 7.5 days off work through sickness in 2004 - well ahead of the 6.8 days national rate.

And business leaders are claiming that 14pc of those lost days could be due to staff "throwing sickies" - at a cost of £86m and undermining the North-East's competitiveness. The CBI is reporting a rise in sickness levels before and after weekends and bank holidays and is calling on businesses to take a tighter grip on absences.

But union leaders last night said most workers in the region were dedicated to their jobs and blamed rising stress levels for the increased absences.

CBI regional director Steve Rankin blamed a "relaxed" culture in the public sector - where the report shows absence levels are highest - for creeping into North-East firms.

Mr Rankin said: "It's a huge amount of money and there's an obvious benefit in trying to bring it down. The high

proportion of public sector jobs in the region skew the statistics in an unfavourable direction.

"The public sector ethos, which is much more relaxed, infects attitudes across the private sector as well. It doesn't contribute to a hard working, enterprising, innovative regional economy."

His claim was angrily dismissed by Unison spokeswoman Lynne Robson, who said: "If anything, there's a very stringent attitude in public services. Our representatives are often representing members in sickness monitoring procedures."

North-East Chamber of Commerce chief executive George Cowcher said: "It ties up with the evidence we have of a poor state of health in the North-East. The figures on serious illnesses go together with this.

"If we're seen as uncompetitive because of having more days off sick, that's unhelpful." Mr Cowcher added that companies which have tight sickness management policies - such as interviewing anyone who is off for more than three days in a year - notice a reduction in absences.

"If people think they can get away with it, they will try it on - better organisations have a policy," said Mr Cowcher.

The CBI said that giving responsibility for the sickness policy to a board member ensured it had the maximum impact on the "sickie" culture.

But TUC Northern regional secretary Kevin Rowan said there was more evidence of people going to work when they were ill than staying off when they were well. "Despite rumours, people are really dedicated to their workplaces," he said. And he added that longer hours worked in the North-East, job insecurity and the introduction of new technology accounted for increasing stress levels among workers.

Better training and greater involvement for staff in decision-making have been shown to cut absence rates, Mr Rowan said.

The Journal: Today's Voice of the North

Page 2: Euro MP to vote for work time cut