UK firms paid £11.6bn to cover employee costs last year
Sickness absence cost UK firms an average of £476 per employee in 2002, according to the annual workplace absence survey conducted by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
The latest results show firms paid a staggering £11.6bn last year to cover the salaries of absent staff and the resulting overtime and temporary cover. Although this figure is down on £11.8bn recorded in 2001, absence incidence fell, sugges- ting the cost of each working day lost is not in decline.
According to the survey, the number of working days lost fell by 5.7% in 2002, down from 176 million in 2001 to 166 million. This marks the lowest figure since the survey began in 1987, with an average of 6.8 days lost per employee, representing 2.9% of total working time.
The CBI said absence costs remained high despite falling levels because of increasing labour costs. The report also revealed employers do not believe all sickness absence is genuine, estimating 15% of staff phoning in sick are faking it.
'There are too many people who will happily spend the day off work at the expense of their employers and their hard working colleagues,' said John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI.
Absence was found to fall most significantly in firms where senior managers took responsibility for managing absence. The CBI claimed 19 million fewer days would be lost each year if firms with the worst absence rate could pull up their performance to the average level. It cited return-to-work interviews as the most effective management tool.
Dr Mark Simpson, health- care director of occupational health services at AXA PPP healthcare, said services such as rehabilitation and early assessment of absent staff ' often provided by group income protection schemes ' can help significantly reduce long-term absence.
'The lack of progress in reducing long-term absence is deeply disturbing. It continues to account for around 5% of cases and as much as one-third of time off sick.
'Yet only half of people responsible for managing absence have ever been shown how to do it. When well established tools such as early assessment and rehabilitation can help people return to work, it seems an enormous waste not to employ them,' he said.
