DURING the years when I was a wage slave I always took pride in the fact that I tended to drag myself in to the office when I was suffering from colds or other forms of winter health misery.

I never took much notice when colleagues grumbled that I was merely infecting everybody else and it took me a long time to stop looking for the column on the routine office sickness forms which - if it had existed - would have provided space to enter details of heroic martyrdom.

A recent survey, it is reported, found that 53 per cent of the North-west workers quizzed said they struggled in to work when they were ill.

Also, 35 per cent held their place of employment responsible for the majority of their illnesses.

These statistics are being used to promote a competition by the makers of the Yakult probiotic drink to find the country's healthiest workplace - one where managements support staff well-being through measures such as subsidised gym membership, free fruit, relaxation areas, yoga classes, health fairs, leaflets or internal health communication.

There can be no argument that employers should be encouraged to promote the health of their workers and I do not doubt that many do what they can.

Others have what might be called an over-robust attitude to staff absences.

A chap I know, working at a firm in Warrington at the time, rang in sick and duly took to his pit.

He was then disturbed by a telephone call in which his boss told him that he did not believe he was really ill and that a car would be sent round for him immediately.

After getting dressed, with an understandable sense of resentment exacerbating the effects of his malady, a senior management type turned up in a prestigious vehicle.

The journey did not last very long because the "malingerer" threw-up over the expensive leather seats as the car negotiated the first bend.

He was returned to his home and the incident was never mentioned again.

I suspect you would struggle to find any justification for that company's actions in standard human resources textbooks, but you can bet that there are plenty of managers out there who would applaud such tactics and regret that they went wrong so spectacularly on that occasion.

Others see that a climate of suspicion is not helpful and that there are more benefits to be had from creating healthy workplaces.

I cannot believe, however, that we will ever get to the stage where would-be martyrs are sent home at the first sign of a sniffle or sneeze - sensible though that could be.

Finally, good luck to Bolton greyhound-owner Irene Halpin. She hopes her campaign for a new track in the town (to replace the one on Manchester Road which closed in 1996) will attract the attention of a leisure developer with the necessary cash and vision.

It could work again - there are many people in the area who remember enjoyable nights at Raikes Park.