Absence levels rise

News | HSW
01.06.2007

Workers took an average of seven days off sick in 2006, up from 6.6 in 2005, according to the latest annual Confederation of British Industry (CBI)/AXA Insurance absence survey. The employers' body puts the increase, which follows a fall in 2005, down to a "culture of absenteeism" in some organisations.

The survey of 399 organisations revealed that companies who offer effective rehabilitation programmes and flexible working are having "real success in reducing long-term sickness absence levels", noted Susan Anderson, CBI director of human resources policy. Employers said oc-cupational health provision and rehabilitation had the second and third highest impact on absence among non-manual workers after return-to-work interviews, which were ranked as most effective for both manual and non-manual workers. The largest employers reported that flexible working reduced absence by 20% when used as part of their rehabilitation policies.

Back pain is still among the leading causes of absence. Employers ranked it second after colds and flu in the top five causes of short-term sickness among both manual and non-manual staff. Non-work-related mental ill health was the most significant cause of long-term absence among non-manual workers and the second most significant among manual workers after back pain. Interestingly employers ranked work-related stress below non-work-related stress as a cause of short and long-term absence, although 51% of employers said it was a leading cause of absence among non-manual workers.

The survey reveals that employers believe staff "pulling sickies" accounted for around 12% of short-term absences. Seventy per cent of employers cited unauthorised long weekends as a reason behind fake illness claims.

"Everybody gets sick and employers understand that most absences are genuine," said Anderson. "But there is a culture of absenteeism in some workplaces that must be addressed."

The gap between the best and worst-performing organisations was significant: in the worst-performing organisations employees took an average 12 days' sick leave, compared with only 2.7 days in the top performers. The public sector lagged the private sector, recording an average of nine days per employee (up half a day on 2005) compared with 6.3.

Absence levels vary most by organisation size: employers with fewer than 50 employees had four days' absence per head, compared with eight days in organisations with more than 5000 employees. The CBI suggested staff in small firms are more aware of the effect of absence and senior management are more involved in monitoring it.

Challenging the CBI contention that British workers fake illness to get time off work, new research from Benenden Healthcare found that in the three months to the end of April, a quarter of the workforce admitted going to work ill. Of 1006 workers surveyed, 52% said they had been ill but less than half of these took time off.