TAXPAYERS are losing more than £6m a year because of sick leave taken by council workers in a North-East city.

Conservative Euro MP Martin Callanan is demanding action by Newcastle City Council to address the issue.

Last year, the authority lost 217,000 working days - an average of three weeks per worker - costing more than £6m in lost productivity.

Mr Callanan said: "I'm not saying people are swinging the lead and quite clearly nobody should be going to work when they are ill. But working for a public authority is no tougher or more stressful than being employed in the private sector and, at the end of the day, public sector workers have the luxury of a secure job and good holidays."

Councillor George Douglas, chairman of the council's corporate affairs select committee, said the figures reflected an increase in stress-related illness.

He said: "The human resources department is drawing up a strategy to help people deal with the problem of stress.