CorpComms Magazine

The recession has reduced sickness absence to its lowest level for 23 years, with UK employees taking on average 6.4 days sick leave each in 2009, according to the Absence and Workplace Health Survey by trade body the Confederation of British Industry and pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

However, this still amounts to 180 million days lost to sickness for the nation in total, costing employers approximately £16.8 billion last year.

Senior human resources staff estimated that 15 per cent of this absence (27 million sick days) was bogus, and the cost of these sham 'sickies' amounted to £2.5 billion a year. Only a third of employers believe all sickness absence among their employees is genuine.

The public sector chalks up significantly more sick days than profit-driven private companies, with employees taking 8.3 days unscheduled leave per year on average compared to only 5.8 in the private sector. The direct monetary cost of absence per employee in the public sector was also 50 per cent higher than in the private sector. Professional services such as law and consultancy had the lowest rates of absence, with just 3.7 days lost per worker.

Larger employers also tended to have higher rates of absence than their smaller counterparts. Organisations with a staff of over 5,000 recorded 6.6 days absence on average per employee last year, whilst those working for companies of between 50 and 199 people took just five days leave.

Long term absence accounted for one fifth of days lost in the private sector and 36 per cent of public sector sick days. The most common causes of repeat absences are back pain and mental health problems.

Employees are increasingly focusing on rehabilitation and support to encourage absentees back to work and increase productivity. Ninety five per cent of organisations surveyed last year had a formal absence policy - a rise of ten percentage points compared to 2007.

Katja Hall, director of employment policy at CBI, said: 'The rate of employee absence has come down, but it still costs the economy billions of pounds a year. If absence levels across the board could be reduced by ten per cent, the economy would see annual savings of just under £1.7 billion.

'Unfortunately, bogus sick days remain a problem, and are unfair on hard-working colleagues and employers alike.'

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