Pictured above: Simon Bond, Employment Partner at Midlands
law firm Challinors
Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
show that employee absence from work due to sickness is once again
on the rise, following a drop recorded during the recession.
Simon Bond, Employment Partner at Midlands law firm Challinors,
explains: "The ONS data reveals a weekly average of 613,000
employees absent from work, and two million working days lost
between October and December 2010.
"Employers must take a proactive approach to these issues and
look to root out and focus on the causes behind the problem."
According to recent figures from the Confederation of British
Industry (CBI), employee absence directly costs the UK economy
nearly £17bn in 2009, which equates to 27 million working
days lost due to sickness. "This puts estimates of the average cost
of absence to an employer of £596 per employee," comments
Simon.
"Both these sets of figures indicate that sickness absence
continues to be a problem for employers. Potentially the stress
placed on employees still in work during the recession, with
inherent concerns over job and financial security, is contributing
to the reasons behind employee absence. Employers need to do more
to get to the root of the problem."
The figures come in the wake of the government's announcement of
its review into sickness absence, led by national director for
health and work, Dame Carol Black and British Chambers of Commerce
director general David Frost.
In the announcement, Prime Minister David Cameron said he was
going to make work pay when he disclosed the 'most ambitious,
fundamental and radical' changes to the welfare system since it
began sixty years ago. Unveiling the Welfare Reform Bill to
Parliament, the PM said: "Never again will work be the wrong
financial choice, welfare has to change because it isn't working. A
welfare system should be about training, confidence and getting
back to work."
The ONS figures have revealed that in the final quarter of 2010,
2.1 percent of male employees (264,000) were absent from work,
compared with 2.9 percent (349,000) female employees. Other than
minor illnesses, such as coughs and colds, the top reason for men
to be off work was musculoskeletal problems, whilst for women,
stress, depression and anxiety were the main reasons.
The gap between the public and private sectors was at its widest
in the final quarter of 2008, whilst both public and private
sectors have seen a rise in sickness absence since the recession -
up from a low of 1.9 percent for the private sector and 2.4 percent
for the public sector in the first quarter of 2009.
Challinors has offices in Birmingham, West Bromwich,
Wolverhampton, Halesowen and Nottingham. The firm has 22 partners
and over 100 fee earners, and is ranked as one of the top legal
firms in the West Midlands, being Number 1 in the Chambers UK
Directory in a number of categories, including Clinical
Negligence.