17 May 2006 - Lord Hunt welcomes
progress on workplace sickness absence
Health & Safety Minister Lord Hunt has welcomed the CBI / AXA Absence Survey, showing that sickness absence across the public sector is down from 10.1 days per person to 8.5, and committed Ministers to reducing this further.
Lord Hunt, Chair of the Ministerial Task Force on Health, Safety and Productivity
said:
“
Workplace absence and productivity are high profile issues. They affect our
competitiveness and productivity as a player in a global economy. They can
be used to indicate how well an organisation is managed. And, not least, they
have an impact on individuals in the workforce – their health, well-being
and motivation.
The Task Force’s work is supported by the Government’s Health, Work and Wellbeing Strategy, which aims to break the link between ill health and inactivity, advance the prevention of ill health and injury, encourage good management of occupational health and transform opportunities for people to recover from illness while at work, maintaining their independence and sense of worth.
Notes to editors
- 1 million people a week take sick leave – and while the majority will return to work quickly, in an average week 3,000 people are off sick for more than six months and of those 80% will not work again for the next five years.
- The Government’s Health, Work and Well-being (HWWB) strategy helps by setting out a blueprint for change to create healthier working environments whilst ensuring people get the help and understanding they need to stay in work if they become ill.
- If we are to meet the challenges of an ageing society then we need all those who can work to do so. We need:
- to take action to prevent employees becoming ill in the first place;
- to
build a world that rehabilitates rather than rejects people when they do
experience illness or disability
That means breaking the link between ill-health and inactivity; helping people get back into work – and helping them to stay there.
- The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) Survey on Workplace Absence, Sickness
and Health (SWASH) - based on 10,000 interviews with employees – confirmed:
- That organisational size is a major influence on workplace absence, with rates of absence higher in larger than in smaller organisations. The CBI / AXA survey acknowledged this – for organisations employing more than 5000 staff, the difference in performance between the public and private sectors is small;
- Notable differences in employment patterns between the public and private sectors with respect to gender. Women (on average) take more sickness absence than men and the public sector employs a higher proportion of female workers;
- That older employees have more sickness absence than younger counterparts and the public sector has an older workforce than the private sector.
- The SWASH survey showed that sickness absence rates in the public sector
are as good as larger private sector organisations. Comparative statistics
show a mean difference between the public and private sectors of around
0.3 of a day (as opposed to the 2.5 days difference quoted in the CBI / AXA
survey).
The SWASH survey also found that public sector workers are more likely
to work when ill than those in the private sector.
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