STAFF sickness rates at Oxford City Council are on course to be the worst ever, latest figures have shown.

Employees took an average 2.88 days off each in the three months since April this year, up on 2005 figures.

The results were made public in the council's first quarter performance report.

Absenteeism has been a longstanding problem for the city council, despite the fact the authority has introduced drastic measures to clamp down on the issue.

They can call on an in-house occupational health service, but managers have complained it takes weeks to get an appointment. And staff who call in sick first have to ring a call centre where they are given advice by nurses.

It is part of a pilot scheme in which three council departments - city works, revenues and benefits and Oxford Building Solutions - are taking part.

However, sickness absence rates in the city works and revenues benefits departments have increased year-on-year, while rates in OBS have decreased.

City councillor Stephen Tall, executive member for better finances and whose job it is to bring down staff sickness rates, said: "The fact that the figures are still going in the wrong direction is nothing other than worrying. It's not going in the right direction and we need to find out why. With invoices, it is improving, but it has been set a challenging target."

Managers have blamed a small amount of long-term sickness for distorting the overall picture. Last year the 1,338 staff employed by the council each took an average 12.35 days off.

The performance report also showed that in June the city council failed to meet its target for paying undisputed invoices for the first time. Invoices should be paid within 15 days, but the average time to settle a bill was 16.56 days.

And the situation has caused concern among Town Hall managers with the report pointing out "although the cumulative performance remains within target, the trend over the three months is worsening month by month".

Overall, the council is taking two days longer to collect money it is owed than it takes to pays its suppliers.

There was some good news, however, with more rent being collected year-on-year, the average time it takes to process a benefit claim down and the number of benefit cases calculated correctly up.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to crack down on the number of staff the city council employs, every post, existing and new, is to be subjected to a so-called 'justification check' before the recruitment process is started.

Caroline Bull, Oxford City Council's chief executive, said: "Before recruiting for any post, either a vacancy or a newly-created one, we are checking the rationale behind it to make sure that it is fully justified and funded within our budget.

"This is part of the establishment controls process that we now have in place."

Oxford city councillors have been told they need to see "the bigger picture" and look ahead more when setting budgets.

The Town Hall's chief financial officer, Mark Luntley, has told all 48 councillors they need to plan ahead and identify policies in advance, rather than at the last minute.