Absenteeism is costing UK firms £20.9 billion a year, equating to a total loss of 480 million days.
These are the findings of a survey of 2,139 employers by employment law consultancy Peninsula, which also showed that fraudulent sick days are costing firms £3.5 billion a year, with 81.6 million days lost annually. In addition, it found that 17 per cent of all company sickness is bogus.
Employee absence through sickness has increased steadily in recent years, said Mike Huss, employment law director at Peninsula.
“We have found an increased number of workers are calling in absent compared to previous research we carried out in 2002. The average number of sick days taken in 2002 by workers was eight days; that figure has now risen to twice as much and is now 16 days.”
He added that employers must take action against bogus illness. “Return to work interviews should be enforced to give the employer and the employee the chance to sit down and discuss why they were absent from work. This can dissuade employees from calling in sick, when bogus, as a sense of guilt may hold them back. The employer must make it known that bogus sickness will not be dealt with lightly, however this seems to be the struggle with many companies.”
