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Front Page Wednesday, 2 May, 2001, 12:13 GMT 13:13 UK

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Ill wind blowing for the sickie
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Wednesday is World Phone in Sick Day. But while throwing a

sickie might sound harmless enough, employers are starting to
crack down on false absenteeism, writes BBC News Online's
Jonathan Duffy.

"Workers of the world unite" was the rallying call

of that founder of modern communism, Karl
Marx.

Failing that, stay in bed, might be the response

of those who still hold his ideals close to their
hearts.

Wednesday is World Phone in Sick Day - a day

dedicated to helping undermine global capitalism
while giving hard-pressed workers a lie-in.

It is, in effect, an attempt to legitimise the "Forty winks? That's no way

"sickie". to start a revolution"

But anyone who has signed up to this peculiar brand of labour protest
should ponder the fact that tomorrow they may no longer have a job to
go absent from.

In an economic climate which now kneels at the altar of improved

productivity, the sickie is, appropriately enough, in poor health. And
those who partake can expect little sympathy from their bosses.

True that one third of all sickness absence still has nothing do with ill
health, according to the Chartered Institute of
Sick stuff
Personnel and Development (CIPD).
Most common causes of
sickness absence are minor
complaints such as colds or
But the number of days we have off sick has been headaches.
in decline for some years. In some industries, eg.
agriculture and textiles,
employers estimate half of
all sickness absence is not
According to the Confederation of British the result of illness.
Industry's (CBI) annual report on absenteeism last year, the average
worker takes 7.8 days sick leave a year. That was down from 8.5 days
in the previous year and 12.1 days in 1989.

However, there are still wide variations between job sectors, manual and
non-manual workers and public and private companies.

Among the worst examples are Birmingham City Council, where staff are
absent for an average of 19.1 days a year; South West Trains, 15 days a
year; and prison guards, who average 14 days sick leave a year.

Laid low

Sectors with the lowest levels of absence include

finance, utilities and construction, according to
research by the CIPD.

Finance workers lose an average of 3.1% of

their working time to sick leave, which, given an
average of 20 days paid holiday a year, amounts
to about seven days a year. By the same
method of calculation, London Underground staff
average about 18 days absent a year.
It may be stressful, but
finance workers are not a
But the cost of absenteeism, which the CIPD sickly bunch
estimates to be £13bn a year, is making some
employers think again about how to cut down on the sickie culture.

"Dealing with sickness absences is the single most tricky recurring issue
for our clients," says employment lawyer Michael Burd.

"Sickies are very hard to deal with because it's so hard to prove. If
someone is off work for a day they don't need a doctor's note.

Cash incentives

"The problem is that most employers have no

other means for dealing with it other than their
standard disciplinary procedures."

Some companies have started to take a more

innovative approach. At the Marsden Building
Society, staff can earn a £100 bonus if they
have a clean record of attendance.

The scheme, which has been running for five

"I'll spend my £100 bonus on
years, has "definitely been helpful" in cutting some more handkerchiefs"
absenteeism, says spokesman Rob Pheasey.

But employment rights campaigners argue such a scheme unfairly

penalises those who are genuinely ill and encourages sickly staff to
struggle in regardless of whether it's good for their health.

This week, the Prison Service unveiled its new weapon in fighting
sickness levels - the Bradford Formula. The complicated method works
by multiplying the frequency of periods of absence by the total number
of days absent, to highlight staff who are abusing the system.

Supermarket sickness

Supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and

Asda have pioneered a more subtle approach,
designed to accommodate staff demands and
cut costs.

The country's largest private sector employer,

Tesco identified a grey area in staff absenteeism
where employees were calling in sick for
domestic or family reasons - a sick child, for
example.

Prison officers have unusually

Under new procedures, staff who phone in sick high levels of absenteeism
are put through to someone who is trained in
managing absence rather than just a colleague or supervisor.

On their return, they must go through a short interview with a store

manager and, if the absence was not down to illness, they have the
chance to treat that time as holiday or unpaid leave, or to offset it
against overtime.

The company says the new procedures help cut absenteeism from 5.8%
to 4.6%.

Michael Burd congratulates Tesco on taking the issue outside the realms
of normal disciplinary procedure.

"It's all about productivity," he says. "They're not doing it out of pure
enlightenment, but it seems to be working."