WORKPLACE absence cost the North-East about £1.2bn last year, a report reveals.

The annual CBI/AXA absence survey based its findings on an average cost per employee of £531 a year. The indirect costs are £600m and increasing year-on-year.

The figures, published today, reveal that absences were 30 per cent higher in public sector organisations than in the private sector. Because 38 per cent of North-East workers are employed in the public sector, it would suggest the cost of absence in the region was higher.

If the public sector reduced its absence to average private sector levels, £1.1bn of taxpayers' money would be saved nationwide - enough to pay for nearly 60,000 extra nurses a year.

The total number of days lost through absence across the UK economy fell last year by four million to 164 million days. It is the lowest level since the survey began in 1987.

However, based on the current rate of change in the public sector, from 8.9 days in 2002 to 8.5 days in this year's survey, it would take 30 years to reduce absence rates to the average six days lost per employee in the private sector.

In Yorkshire and Humberside, each worker takes an average of 8.9 days off sick.

The survey suggests that a "culture of absenteeism" still exists in too many workplaces.

As many as 13 per cent of days lost to sickness last year were considered non-genuine by employers, at a cost of £1.2bn.

Nearly three-quarters of employers believe unauthorised absences are mostly on Mondays and Fridays, and almost two-thirds thought staff threw sickies to extend holidays.

Forty per cent considered events such as the forthcoming football World Cup were a likely cause of unwarranted absence.

Sarah Green, the regional director of the Confederation of British Industry, said: "The huge cost of absence to the economy shows why so many businesses declare that their people are their most important asset."