'Pulling a Sickie'

A new study has highlighted stress as the major cause of employee absence in the UK workplace. In an online poll conducted by smallbusiness.co.uk, 48 per cent of respondents said physical and emotional pressures are directly responsible for the majority of unauthorised days off. Some 27 per cent of absence days were said to be employee 'sickies', where the worker has made up a false excuse for failing to come into work.

Meanwhile, back problems accounted for ten per cent of days away from the workplace, the same proportion as annual leave, with just three per cent of absences down to 'other reasons'.

Commenting on the poll, Gareth Osborne of APA said, “There is a massive difference between those who are happy to ‘pull a sickie’ for the weakest reason and the ‘troopers’ who soldier on and come into work when they really are too ill and should genuinely stay at home; to avoid infecting the entire organisation. Common sense lies somewhere in between.”

Employers claim that workplace absence costs the economy £17 billion per year and currently an employer is rendered "powerless" when an employee calls in sick.

APA will be taking this matter up with the Secretary of State for Business in its forthcoming meeting.

APA