SIR - Employers are being urged to clamp down on sickies. What a joke. These people taking time off sick' should have been around years ago.

Back then, when you had the odd day off genuinely sick over the years - despite working seven days a week - they would be knocking on your door.

They want a taste of it today. They talk about stress, we used to give it a different name. It used to be tired'. But you used to get yourself to bed ready for the next day, not be up until the early hours.

I think it is a disgrace that the public sector can get away with it today. They have had big pay rises since Labour came to power. They are well paid, so now they cannot moan about the money, they take sickies and do less for it at the cost to the taxpayers.

They should have a try being self-employed and get a taste of the real world. The rest of us are subsidising the large pensions of the public sector.

The self-employed have had to suffer due to the stock market and the Chancellor; we loose both ways. Wake up the people in charge, these people are pulling a fast one. Whingers.

DEREK NEWTON, Worcester.