Absence 'falls among UK workers'

Back pain is a big cause of absence for manual workers

Absences among UK workers fell again last year, according to a survey of 1,000 firms by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

The average absence rate fell from nearly eight and a half days per worker to just eight last year.

The CIPD said the problem of absence remained higher in the public sector than in private firms.

But the TUC said the CIPD was "peddling the tired old myth" on public sector sickness, which it said was inaccurate.

'Risk of sacking'

According to the CIPD, public sector employees were absent for an average of 10 days each, down from 10.3 days the year before.

And private sector staff were away for seven and a half days, down slightly from last year, it said.

However TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said recent research showed the private sector traditionally under-reports time taken off sick by its employees.

"Also this research ignores the fact that public sector employers are more likely to try to retain members of staff who have been off work whereas workers who take time off ill in the private sector run the risk of being sacked," he added.

'Cultural difference'

The CIPD blamed differing attitudes for the 25% difference in absence rates between the two sectors.

The report's author, Ben Willmott, said private sector employers were more likely to treat absence as a disciplinary issue while their public sector counterparts were more likely to accept excuses that absence was due to illness.

"There does seem to be a cultural difference between how this issue is managed in the private and public sectors," he said.

The survey found that public sector employers were:

less likely than private employers to use disciplinary proceedings when dealing with absent staff

less likely to have sacked staff for being off

less likely to have cut their pay for giving unacceptable excuses

more likely to regard absences as being due to ill health.

"Private sector organisations are proportionately more likely to manage absence as an issue of conduct through the disciplinary process," said Mr Willmott.

Civil servants

The overall level of absence was the lowest recorded since the CIPD launched its survey seven years ago.

The organisations it surveyed employed one and a half million workers.

Although the public sector absence rate fell in 2005, there were differences among different groups of staff.

Central and local government employers saw their rates rise to 10.5 days and 11 days respectively.

But those employed by the health service were off for fewer days, down from 11.6 to 10.4.

Meanwhile teachers and other education staff also took fewer days off, down from nearly 10 days to just nine.

For all types of staff, the absence rate was lowest in London and the South East, but highest in Wales and Northern Ireland.

The biggest cause of short-term absence was minor illness, but stress for non-manual workers and back pain for manual workers were also big contributors to the problem.