HARINGEY Council staff who manage to avoid taking sick leave should be sent letters of congratulation, a new report suggests.

The idea is one of several proposed in order to reduce high levels of sickness absence at the council.

They are suggested in a report by the council's scrutiny committee, which discussed the problem at a meeting on Tuesday.

At the meeting councillors were told that the estimated annual cost of sickness absence is £5 million.

About 456,100 working hours are lost each year through staff going sick ? not including sick leave taken by teachers and school-based staff.

And staff have 11.6 sick days a year on average.

The figures place Haringey 21st out of 27 London boroughs compared for their levels of sick leave.

To improve the council's performance, the scrutiny committee suggests measures to boost staff morale, motivation, health and welfare.

It proposes that 'directors write letters to staff, congratulating them for no sickness absence, and reminding all others of the amount of sickness absence aggregated in the 12 month period'.

To improve health, council workers should be encouraged to take up more sport and social activities, says the report.

In particular it adds that staff discounts for council leisure facilities should be better publicised.

The council is criticised for not demonstrating it values staff and is committed to their health and welfare.

The reports calls for health checks to be carried out by a nurse, together with advice sessions on diet, exercise, smoking and drinking.

Other sickness-bashing measures include return-to-work interviews for workers coming back from time off, and blitzes on 'sickness hotspots', where absence rates are very high.

The Government's Cabinet Office is calling on councils to reduce sickness absence by 20 per cent by next year.

And the Audit Commission has set a target of 9.1 sick days on average in Haringey over the current year.