Lie detectors may be introduced to stop employees from pulling sick days.

Government trials of the technology have been hailed a success, leading to suggestions employers will use the tests to determine whether staff calling in sick are genuinely ill and deter false claims for days off.

Personnel Today reports employer groups welcomed the idea of using the Voice Risk Analysis (VRA) system to tell when staff are lying when they call in to say they are too ill to work.

It states Anti-fraud minister James Plaskitt last week announced pilot projects using VRA to detect false benefit claims in local authorities had been a triumph. A year-long trial at Harrow Borough Council, one of seven that concluded this month, saved the authority more than £420,000 by identifying false benefits claims.

Lawrence Knowles, managing director of software and outsourcing firm Midland HR, told Personnel Today that VRA would soon be a useful tool in reducing sickness absence.

He said: "If lie detectors can detect benefit fraud, then why not look at the application of the technology in absence management?

"If you know there is a lie detector on the other end of the phone, I'm pretty sure most people would think twice [about lying]."

According to the Confederation of British Industry, absence from work cost the UK economy £13.2 billion last year as the average employee took almost seven days off sick.

Susan Anderson, CBI Director of HR Policy, said: "People who awarded themselves sickies to enjoy the recent sunny weather or to extend a weekend away are acting unfairly, leaving their colleagues to pick up their work, and costing taxpayers and employers over a billion pounds a year."