Sick leave costs the economy 175 million working days – £13.4 billion a year – and employers believe that 12 per cent of absences are faked, according to research by the CBI and AXA.
The research revealed that the average worker takes seven days a year off sick and long-term absence of 20 days or more accounts for 43 per cent of all working time lost, costing £5.8bn. In the public sector 52 per cent of absence is long-term, while in the private sector the figure is 38 per cent.
According to the survey, companies which offer rehabilitation programmes and flexible working can help employees back to work and lose less time to absence.
Short-term absences are a key concern. The great majority of absences are genuine, but employers believe around 12 per cent are suspect and involve staff ‘pulling a sickie’. That means 21 million days were lost in 2006 at a cost to the economy £1.6bn.
Asked to cite the reasons behind fake illness claims, 70 per cent of employers felt staff are inclined to create unauthorised long weekends by taking Mondays or Fridays off sick, while 68 per cent said there is a link between sickies and holidays, and 39 per cent said absence is linked to special events, such as major sporting tournaments.
Looking at all absences, the 2006 research shows an increase on 2005, when the average employee took 6.6 days off sick, and the total number of days lost was 164 million.
The best performing organisations lost only 2.7 days per employee, while the worst lost 12. The public sector had the highest average absence at nine days per employee, up half a day from 2005, while the private sector lost 6.3 days. Despite the government’s efforts, public sector absence was 44 per cent higher than in the private sector.
Susan Anderson, CBI director of human resources policy, said: “We’ve all just enjoyed the four-day Easter weekend, but some people think they have a right to use ‘sickies’ to take long weekends or extend holidays as they please. Unauthorised absence puts colleagues under unfair pressure, and loses employers and taxpayers well over a billion pounds.
“Everybody gets sick and employers understand that most absence is genuine. It is in nobody’s interest if staff come to work when they are not well.
“People with long-term illnesses need to time to recover. But firms that keep in touch with employees and offer the support and flexible working that helps them return to work earlier have had real success in reducing long-term absence levels.
“But there is a culture of absenteeism in some workplace that must be addressed. The gap between organisations with the highest and lowest absences is over nine days, and clearly some are managing absence better than others. In particular, if the public sector could match average private sector absence levels, then the taxpayer would save £1.1bn a year – enough to build seven new general hospitals.”
The most important factor that influences absence is organisational size. In 2006 employers with fewer than 50 staff had just four days of absence per employee, but this doubled to eight days in organisations with over 5,000 employees.
Organisations that recognised trade unions experienced more absence – eight days compared to 5.6 days in non-unionised workplaces. This correlation was found regardless of size or sector, except in firms with less than 50 employees.
The top causes of absence are colds and flu with back pain in second place. For long-term absence, non-work related mental ill health – including stress, anxiety and depression – was the most significant cause of absence among non-manual staff. For manual staff, back pain topped the list.
Another major cause of absence was time lost attending medical appointments. Dudley Lusted, AXA head of corporate healthcare development, said: “The way the health service is organised is unhelpful, with employees having to fit in with doctors’ hours for their medical appointments.”
