Working harder, for more days

Jan 7 2010 by Peter Jackson, The Journal

WELCOME back after the break – if you are back after the break that is. The reason for that caveat is that January is the worst month for sick leave, according to HR consultants Mercer.

According to their survey of records for 11,000 individual employees across a number of private sector organisations, January has by far the highest rate of absenteeism, with sick leave averaging half a day per person for the month.

Of course, this could be genuine and perhaps we are more likely to succumb to the sniffles in this cold winter month.

It is, however, suspicious, that during the whole of 2008, 13 of the 20 most popular sickies were in January; six of these were taken in the first week, and, on January 3 and 4, nearly one in 20 of the total employee population was absent on sick leave.

Mercer's research also indicates that more than a third of all sick leave is taken on a Monday.

This is no laughing matter for British industry. It was estimated by healthcare consultancy IHC a few years ago that 40 million working days are lost every year in the UK workplace due to absenteeism and, according to the CBI, in 2008, the cost to industry was £13.2bn in wages to absent staff, additional overtime and temporary cover.

Nor did it amuse the CBI that the gulf between absence rates in the public sector and the private sector grew to a record level, with average absence levels across the public sector standing at nine days, compared which the 5.8 day average of the private sector.

And something which will most certainly not have private sector workers rolling in the aisles is the recent news that public sector workers earn 7% more on average than their counterparts in the private sector and this gap has more than doubled since the recession began.

Not only do staff employed by the state receive bigger pay rises and work fewer hours, they also receive pensions worth up to three times as much as those in the private sector. Last year, for example, eight directors of the Met Office received pay rises of between 3% and 33%. That's right, that's the same Met Office which forecast our current mild winter.

Peter Jackson is a freelance journalist and former Journal business editor p.jackson77@btinternet.com.