Council loses 1.3MILLION days to staff going off sick in three years, the worst in whole UK

By TOM GORDON, SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 19:05, 14 August 2026 | Updated: 19:05, 14 August 2026 A Scottish council has been named the UK’s sick note capital, with staff taking more than 1.3 million days off in just three years. SNP-run Glasgow City Council also had the most days lost to long-term sickness – with over 950,000 shifts missed by workers signed off for four weeks or more. The authority, which serves 650,000 people, lost more days than bigger Leeds and Birmingham with populations of 800,000 and one million. The TaxPayers’ Alliance, which highlights the problem in a new report on ‘Town hall sickness’, said Glasgow needed to get a grip on ‘soaring absenteeism’. Council workers take an average of ten sick days each per year – 30 per cent more than in the rest of the public sector and twice as much as private sector employees. Scottish Tory finance spokesman Craig Hoy said: ‘It is deeply alarming to see the number of sick days soaring in SNP-run Glasgow City Council. ‘Either employees are falling ill at having to try and defend the out-of-touch policies from the nationalist administration, or leader Susan Aitken and her team are doing nothing to try and crack down on this sick note culture. ‘Whatever the case, taxpayers in Glasgow who have been hit with inflation-busting council tax rises in recent years are getting a raw deal. According to the TaxPayers' Alliance, staff at Glasgow City Council took more than 1.3 million days off in just three years ‘Urgent action must be taken to improve productivity and ensure Glaswegians are getting value for money.’ The TaxPayers’ Alliance said the nine million council sick days across the UK each year cost a total of £667million. Mental health accounts for a quarter of them, or £176million a year. The days lost equals 41,302 full time roles – the same as JD Wetherspoons’ workforce. In 2024-25, Glasgow reported 437,833 sickness days – more than double of Leeds’ (170,522 days) and four times more than Birmingham (98,192). The Scottish local authority reported 315,026 long-term sickness days the same year, outpacing the 121,730 seen in Leeds and 70,089 in Birmingham. And Glasgow had a higher average number of sick days per full-time employee – 14.8 compared to 13.9 in Leeds and 11.5 in Birmingham. In other council areas north of the Border, Fife had 14.75 sick days per full-time employee and Edinburgh 14.55 with the former recording a total of 231,929 sick days and Edinburgh 225,517 in 2024-25. In total, between 2022-23 and 2024-25, Glasgow recorded 1,328,020 sick days, of which 952,489 were long-term. The lowest sick day rates in Scotland in 2024-25 were in South Ayrshire, with 9.6 days per full-time worker, and the highest in Argyll & Bute at 18.3 days. Anne Strickland, researcher at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘These eye-watering numbers show Glasgow City Council lagging far behind major English cities when it comes to attendance. ‘Losing over four times as many working days to sickness as Birmingham paints a deeply worrying picture of workplace management. ‘Council bosses need to get a grip on this soaring absenteeism immediately.’ Reform UK deputy Scotland leader Thomas Kerr said: ‘These ridiculous figures are embarrassing for SNP-run Glasgow and taxpayers should be enraged that so much of their money is being wasted. ‘Glasgow is proud to be Scotland’s largest city, but these numbers make it a laughing stock when compared to its English counterparts. ‘The SNP Glasgow administration is running this great city into the ground.’ The study also found councils spent £5.5billion on agency and temporary staff over three years, with the average worker costing £29,032. Birmingham, which effectively declared itself bankrupt three years ago, had the highest overall temp staff bill at £237million, with £83.3million spent in 2023-24 alone. Councillor Susan Aitken is leader of Glasgow City Council Report co-author David Taylor said: ‘Local authorities cannot keep being held hostage by expensive staffing agencies, spending £8.5million of taxpayer’s money every day. ‘They need to get a grip on recruitment and retention, build stronger in-house teams, and get costs down.’ Council umbrella body Cosla said: ‘Scottish councils are committed to being Fair Work employers, helping staff with long-term physical or mental health conditions remain in, or return to, work where possible. ‘It is important to recognise that local government employees deliver essential services, including social care, education, welfare support and housing assistance, often in demanding circumstances. ‘After years of workforce reductions and increasing demand, there is additional pressure on an already stretched workforce which is impacting wellbeing and leading to an increase in sickness absence.’ A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: ‘Glasgow is one of the biggest authorities in the UK - both in terms of the population it serves and its workforce - and, as such, it inevitably comes towards the top of any list like this, when actual performance is much closer to the average. ‘That notwithstanding, managing absence is important and the council has in place policies that seek to maximise attendance while recognising staff will experience periods of illness from time to time.’ Argyll & Bute Council said its new Wellbeing Strategy should improve attendance levels.