HILLINGDON Council workers took more sick leave than in any other London borough in a survey of the last financial year.

In 2010/2011, the councils 3,130 employees missed 25,657.82 days of work because of illness.

That equates to 9.32 days per person on average.

Hillingdon came top of the 25 London boroughs surveyed, followed by Haringey (8.88) and Camden (8.70). Brent showed the lowest average absence levels last year, at just 4.14 days per worker.

The Hillingdon average has climbed in the past three years, from 2008 (8.10) and 2009 (8.45).

The figures were obtained through freedom of information requests made by professional absence specialists FirstCare.

A council spokesman said in response that the figures were old, and added: "The annual average number of days off sick per worker is currently 7.85, which is on a par with many other London boroughs, and below the public sector average of 9.6 days.

"We continue to focus on reducing absence and have this year undertaken some targeted absence management training for our managers.

"We make full use of our occupational health team and offer annual flu vaccines to frontline staff. We are also currently considering a range of further options to improve on our attendance rates in 2012-13."

Across London in 2010/2011, public servants took a total of 805,247 days off, less than the previous two years.

It is estimated that sickness in the public sector costs £146.26 per employee per day, as councils across the country continue to make cutbacks in the wake of reduced funding for frontline services.

FirstCare director James Arquette said: "Cuts to the size of the workforce will have affected these figures and there are significant variations in the absence levels of different London borough councils, meaning that while some have been successful in tackling workplace absence, others are continuing to face unnecessarily high numbers of staff being away from the workplace."