As well as the reserves issue, we again thrashed out concerns about sickness absence levels today.

Sickness absence is running at nearly 12 days a year per employee (that’s on average). Over the last twelve months the council has lost over 93,000 employee work days to sickness.

What is just as striking is that more than thirty percent of staff did not have an appraisal in the last twelve months. How on earth can an organisation run properly when nearly a third of its staff haven’t even had an annual meeting with their boss to discuss their past twelve months performance.

Labour-run Durham County Council is failing its staff. Your Lib Dem councillors have been going on about sickness absence and staff appraisals for years and years.

We have now secured a full discussion on this issue at a meeting early in the new year where we will push for a full investigation by councillors in a working group. I wanted this earlier and have been calling for action for years. We cannot continue to let down staff by failing to recognise they should have annual appraisals.

Sickness absence levels further suggest that management is not taking employee health seriously. The two issues of appraisal and sickness overlap. If management fails to discuss staff concerns – work levels, health issues, workplace problems, it is hardly surprising if some staff end up off work.

This further allows a minority of staff to take advantage of management failure, taking sickies in the knowledge that they will face little reprimand. This then infuriates other staff, damaging the work environment and productivity.

Average sickness absence in the private sector is 5-6 days a year. At DCC it is more than double that figure. The agency staff we have to employ, lost hours of work and a raft of associated issues have huge financial knock-on effects costing the council millions of pounds.

Enough is enough. DCC must get to grips with sickness absence and look after its staff by making sure there is proper management and regular appraisals.