Did you know how adversely the economy is affected every time you call in sick at work? Well, a recent study has revealed that the absence of staff from work by calling themselves sick, affected as many as 23 million working days in the past year, which consequently cost the economy an appalling £1.7 billion.
The survey showed at least three in four companies agreeing that employees remained absent from work saying that they were ‘sick’, generally on Monday or Friday.
Moreover, workers doing manual jobs were found to be absent more frequently than the professional staff, with each manual employee being absent for at least 8.4 days in a year, while professionals absented themselves for 6 days in a year.
Region wise, the South West and the North West of England were found to harbour the maximum rates of absenteeism, according to the research by the CBI and the insurance group, AXA.
Last year, in 2004, absenteeism had made companies lose about £495 each employee, against a lesser £475 in the year before, 2003.
The report further revealed that the total loss of the economy in 2004 due to absenteeism, comprising sincere cases of sickness as well, amounted to £12.2 billion. This included salaries of absent staff, overtime and temporary cover along with the loss of the service of the individual.
Authentic reasons that were given by absentees constituted illnesses like flu, exhaustion, and stress for professionals while manual workers usually complained of frequent backaches and diseases like asthma.
The Deputy Director-General of CBI, John Cridland, said, “With summer almost upon us, employers may well be concerned about staff granting themselves days off that they are not entitled to. Organisations suspect that staff ‘pulling sickies’ cost the UK economy £1.7 billion last year alone, a bill we simply cannot afford to pay in today’s fiercely competitive global market.”
Meanwhile, companies did apply certain measures to curb absenteeism among their staff, such as return-to-work interviews and evaluation of attendance records while considering job cuts or redundancies.
Posted
on : Thu, 12 May 2005 14:10 GMT | General News
By : Rob Davis
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