The average state worker in Michigan is taking as many as five times more sick days than a worker in the hospitality and leisure industry or a construction worker and more than twice as many sick days as many other workers in the private sector, according to state and national reports.

State workers have called in sick on average between 9.4 to 11 days a year over the past five years, according to the Michigan Civil Service Commission annual workforce report. The report applies only to workers directly employed by the state; not public school teachers or local government workers.

"That's good work if you can get it," said Charles Owens, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business. "I don't think that would be sustainable in the private sector."

Private industry workers in the financial activities, information industry, trade, transportation and utilities and professional and business services used about four sick days a year, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report. 

Workers in the leisure and hospitality industry and those in the construction industry used about two sick days a year.

Jason Ford, an economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said the study was based on 2009 data and was the most recent available on private industry.

State employees can get as many as 12 sick days a year, said Matt Fedorchuk, acting deputy director for the Michigan Civil Service Commission. Fedorchuk said sick days can't be cashed out at severance for employees hired after 1980.

Government union representatives did not respond to a request for comment. 

In 2011-12, the average state employee used 11 sick days on top of 18.2 vacation days.

The sick days drive up the cost of government, said Leon Drolet, chair of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance.

"It's an incredibly high average," Drolet said of the number of days sick. "I would hope for the sake of the workers that they really aren't sick that much."

Michigan Education Association President Steve Cook said his union will use “any legal means at our disposal” to combat members who want to leave the union.

Cook made his statement in a letter he sent to MEA local presidents, board members and staff. MEA Spokesman Doug Pratt didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The MEA said if members want to resign, they have to do so in August, "and only August,” Cook wrote.

"We are sticking to that," Cook wrote. "Members who indicate they wish to resign membership in March, or whenever, will be told they can only do so in August." he wrote, adding that the union will take legal action against members or fee payers who chose not to pay their dues/service fees.

Patrick Wright, senior legal analyst for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said there is a Michigan Employment Relations Commission ruling that supports the MEA's hardline stance.

"I don’t think it makes a ton of sense," Wright said. "The union's administrative concerns shouldn't trump people's freedoms."

Two former public school teachers' union presidents questioned how the MEA was handling the "August only" resignation window.

"I don’t like it," Dusty Fairfield, a former Ravenna teachers’ union president, said in an email. "First of all, have fun finding signed membership forms that are current. Secondly, you're going to come out publicly and threaten the very same people who have supported the MEA financially for their entire careers."

John Ellsworth, a former Grand Ledge teachers' union president agreed.

"If members wish to no longer be members, then those wishes should be honored," he said in an email. "Honoring those wishes may not happen instantly, but they should be honored at the next appropriate window. I hope that the MEA and locals approach it that way.

"It is never appropriate to ignore member requests, even if it is a request to resign membership," Ellsworth said. "If a member resigns in March, then I believe the MEA or local should tell the member that the resignation will be made effective in August when drops in membership are processed, but the member should not have to take further action."