YEARS of “services being cut to the bone” is driving record levels of sickness absence levels across Scotland’s councils and it’s time for politicians to act, the STUC said today.

The warning came as the Accounts Commission reported average absence rates between 2010-11 and 2023-24 had risen from 6.6 to 7.6 days for teachers and from 10.8 to 13.9 days among non-teacher staff.

The commission warned that councils faced “clear and continuing financial pressures,”  adding: “Embracing innovation and digital technology and increased collaborative working will all be necessary to attract and retain staff, and to ensure we all continue to benefit from a skilled and motivated local government workforce.”

STUC general secretary Roz Foyer said: “Investment, not cuts, will drive retention, recruitment and boost wellbeing amongst our local authority staff. 

“Politicians therefore have a choice: they can continue to sit on their hands and watch with faux concern as our public services continue with managed decline, or they can act. 

“We hope, through progressive taxation and the redistribution of resources to support public sector workers, that MSPs, councillors and all political actors choose to do the latter.”