Staff sickness levels in Argyll and Bute Council are “disappointing” a senior officer said.
Stress is the main cause of employees taking days off, and the authority was among some of the worst performing councils in Scotland in terms of days lost.
Jane Fowler, head of improvement and human resources, presented a paper titled Maximising Attendance at the council’s performance and scrutiny committee yesterday.
For the period April 2014-March 2015 there was a slight increase in the council actual average days lost per full time equivalent employee from 10.4 in 2013-14 to 10.6 in 2014-15.
In comparison with other Scottish local authorities, the council was ranked 27th out of 32 overall in 2013-14. The best was Clackmannanshire with a rate of 7.4 and the poorest performing was West Dunbartonshire with 11.4.
Ms Fowler said: “We have been looking in some significant detail for some period of time at attendance in the council.
“The report details improvements we have put in place in relation to monitoring and reporting.
“We have got tight systems in place for return to work interviews and for taking forward any actions that arise. We have got every tool in place we could have put in place to support management of attendance.
“We are now at a point where we are not seeing a trend of improvements despite all the activity we have put in. It is really quite disappointing.
“There is some more targeted work we will need to do.
“We have been running training to give managers clear guidance on how to deal with stress and stress management.”
She added that national figures show that stress is the main reason for absence in most workplaces, both public and private.
Councillor Anne Horn said: “It is not always the staff who are the problem. Sometimes the managers are causing the stress, and they are the ones doing the reviews. Perhaps we are not getting to the bottom of it because we are not dealing with the right people.”
The main reasons for sickness absence during 2014-15 were stress, depression and mental health (23.5%), medical treatment/operations (16.5%) and stomach, liver, kidneys and digestion problems (11%).
The council conducted a Stress Audit in 2014. A stress action plan has been developed for each service and a new stress at work policy has also been developed.