Teachers' sickness rates 'adjust'

Teachers absence rate in Australia is similar to the UK

It is normally pupils who are accused of playing truant from school, but new research suggests that teachers can be guilty of pulling "sickies" too.

A study of 20,000 teachers in Australia found that within a short time of starting at a new school their sickness record nears the school's average.

The Lancaster University team looked at how absenteeism rates changed as teachers moved between schools.

Teachers' absence rate in Australia is similar to that of the UK.

If teachers have very high rates of absence there will be an impact on pupils Professor Bradley

Researchers led by Professor of Economics Steve Bradley, at the university's management school, looked at the sickness records of a group of teachers employed by Queensland education authority who moved between schools.

The study published in the journal Labour Economics compared individual teachers' absence record with patterns of sickness in schools that teachers moved from and to.

After controlling for various factors, the research found that within three or four months of changing school, the new teacher would get closer to the average sickness rate of the new school.

This was interpreted to mean that "worker shirking is influenced by workplace absence norms".

And workers who were on short-term contracts appeared to take about a quarter fewer sickness days than their more securely employed counterparts.

Prof Bradley said: "The serious point to the research is that individual behaviour is affected by the aggregate or group behaviour - whether that is positive or negative.

"In this case we found if teachers moved from a school where there were low rates of absenteeism to one where there were higher rates of absenteeism - there was an increase in absenteeism."

He added: "If teachers have very high rates of absence there will be an impact on pupils and there will be an impact on teachers' performance."