A GROUND-BREAKING trial aimed at tackling "crisis" levels of absenteeism among York council employees has met with a frosty reception from staff.

A City of York Council union official said the majority of Guildhall employees involved were against having sick calls re-routed 250 miles to a team of nurses in West London.

Peter Household, of Unison, said the "almost universal" view was the change would not solve the non-attendance problem in the adult services department, which he said was fuelled by stress, heavy workloads and lack of staff.

He fears the trial will lead to staff being "harassed" back to work - a claim denied by Active Health, the private health firm running the pilot.

Concerned council chiefs decided to divert sick calls for three months after research showed the 1,000-strong department lost 28 days per each full-time worker each year, at a cost of £2.3 million.

This is double the authority's average of 12.2 days - and led to York becoming the UK's first council to try the pilot, which it hopes will save £172,000.

From yesterday, instead of calling a council line manager, sick carers and social workers phone a special number to explain absences to a team of 12 occupational health nurses in Hammersmith. They offer treatment advice and conduct follow-up checks when required.

The council is then told the employee will be off work and an indication of return date. Reasons for absence are not disclosed without the worker's consent.

Haakon Overli, business manager at Active Health, said "browbeating" staff back to work was not an option.

The aim was to get employees back to work in "optimum" time.

He said someone is likely to return to work faster if they are targeted early and a treatment plan set up. The system would detect stress-related calls, he added, and advice would be given to the council.

But Mr Household said: "There's a severe workload problem. It's not a surprise sickness levels are high.

"They have stubbornly refused to discuss workloads and have single-mindedly ploughed ahead with this scheme," he said. "I would be surprised if this trial was a solution."

Fellow Unison members at the council's customer advice centre also criticised the trial.

Jane Roberts said the extra layer of bureaucracy was not addressing the real problems.

Jean Churm said shortages were a problem, and Vicky Bruce said staff views were being ignored.

Jim Crook, director of community services, said the council had invested nearly £250,000 to support front-line staff. Opportunities were in place for staff to talk to managers through return interviews, and he said the trial aimed to help staff. He had received positive feedback from employees.

A small number of staff have used the phone service.

Updated: 09:42 Tuesday, September 14, 2004