A COUNCIL has joined a campaign that promotes alternatives to the nine-to-five working day.

Durham County Council, the region's largest workforce, with about 19,000 staff, has joined the Work Wise North-East working initiative.

It promotes such schemes as flexible working times, tele-working, job-sharing and working from home.

Council chief executive Mark Lloyd said: "Work Wise North-East is a fantastic campaign and we are really keen to support it.

"Our flexible working trials have been a huge success and we are planning to introduce a number of other smarter working practices to ensure that we have a happier, healthier and more productive work force, which can help us to deliver even better services to the communities we serve.

"Many of our employees can already access a raft of flexible working measures, including staggered start and finish times, reduced hours, tele-working and job-sharing.

"As an employer, we have found that flexible working can reduce sickness absence, improve productivity, motivate staff, encourage staff loyalty and help staff to achieve a good work-life balance, so it's a win-win situation for both the council and its employees."

Phil Flaxton, Work Wise chief executive, said: "We now have the two largest authorities committed to this campaign - Northumberland and Durham county councils - and we hope other proactive local authorities will follow their lead.

"The benefits are impossible for employers to overlook."