I WAS so glad to read that Darlington Council has managed to get the absenteeism from its 3,000 staff down to an average of 8.2 days per year, from 9.22 days (Echo, March 15).

I hope their sickly staff never have to face life in the real world where you have to actually turn up for work in order to be paid.

It’s a good money tree they have, paying for all that sick pay, getting someone else in to do the work, and on top of that paying for the “counselling, physiotherapy and well-being events”.

I thought we were in the midst of massive cutbacks. Obviously not.

C Caygill, Sadberge