A rail union is outraged by the “disgraceful war” Southern is waging with its staff after the company published figures on the amount of times conductors called in sick.

The French-owned company took the unusual move to bring these figures to the public’s attention as the dispute over the role of its conductors and driver-only trains rages on.

The rail franchise claims that train guards called in sick more than 1,000 times in a month and that on average, 83 of Southern services are being cancelled every day due to the sickness of conductors.

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Southern Rail is in a bitter dispute over conductors and driver-only trains

According to the french-owned company, the rate of absence has almost doubled since the first conductors' strike on April 26.

The company data shows that in the two weeks prior to the first strike there was an average of 23 conductors off sick each day.

But since the strike that number has risen to 40, and increased to 45 in the last 10 days.

In response to Southern and its owner Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) has demanded to see the personal sickness, pay and perks records of senior bosses at the franchise.

The RMT accused the train operator of "coming within an inch" of releasing the personal medical records of its frontline staff as part of their justification for a series of cancellations.

The union said the figures were "pure fiction" that bear no relation to what workers were reporting on the ground.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "In my 35 years in the trade union movement I have never before come across a train company that has such a raw and vicious hatred of its frontline workforce.

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The train franchise claims that train guards called in sick more than 1,000 times in a month

"These top bosses at French-owned GTR should release their own personal sickness, pay and perks records so that the public can judge their performance in the glare of publicity rather than these jokers taking pot shots at their safety-critical workforce anonymously from the shadows.”

“They are a disgrace and they have chosen to go to war with their staff and passengers instead of getting on with running a safe and reliable railway."

The union claims that GTR is deliberately under-staffing services so it can cancel them at the last minute and blame the workforce for it.

A spokesman for Southern said: "We would not usually release such information, but passengers deserve to know the reasons behind the unusually high level of train cancellations they are presently experiencing.

"For those conductors who are ill the company is offering all the support we are able to and working out how they can get back to work.

"But these figures show a remarkable and unprecedented level of sickness absence which commenced at the time of the first strike.

“We are presently looking into what steps can be taken to investigate this deterioration in the health of conductors across the south of England."

Figures show that Southern Rail conductors called in sick 1,066 times in the last 32 working days.