FwdLaw can advise on absence form work at Christmas time

It won’t come as a surprise to most of us to learn that 2 January - the customary end of the festive break - is one of the worst days of the year for employees to pull a ‘sickie’.

According to the Institute of Payroll Professionals (IPP), along with the first day back after Boxing Day, the day after the New Year bank holiday has the highest recorded number of people off sick compared to any other day of the year.

According to the IPP, 66 million days were lost across public services last year, costing tax payers more than £3bn. Nearly 14% of cases, or nine million, were considered not genuine, costing the economy £1.2bn.

According to the Confederation of British Industry lots of companies, well aware of employees' desire to have today off and the threat of sickies, have given their staff the extra day off.

The Federation of Small Businesses claims that three million workers - amounting to 10% of the British workforce - won't return to their jobs until next Monday. This, it says, is part of a growing trend for workers to take more - and longer - holidays, especially during the winter. It also raises the issue that, while many workers will take this time off officially, a large proportion will pull a ‘sickie’ in order to stay at home.

The 2006 CBI / AXA Absence Survey suggested that a ‘culture of absenteeism’ still exists in too many workplaces. As many as 13% of days lost to sickness in 2005 were considered non-genuine by employers at a cost to the economy of £1.2bn.

Nearly three quarters (73%) of employers believed that unauthorised absence could be linked to Mondays and Fridays and almost two-thirds (64%) thought staff might be taking unauthorised extensions to holidays. Forty per cent considered special events as a likely cause of unwarranted absence.

To combat sickness absence and sickies some companies are turning to specialist agencies. Instead of phoning their employers when they are sick, employees ring the agencies' call centres, which are staffed by nurses; the result is often a sudden fall in sick days – with some companies seeing a drop of 40%.

Next Christmas employees may find themselves with extra holiday when the Government enacts its plans to increase employees’ holiday entitlement to 28 days. This decision that bank holidays should be counted on top of the four weeks' holiday employees are currently entitled to under the Working Time Directive, will effectively grant many workers an extra eight days off.

As you may be aware the Government proposes to phase in the additional leave starting with the increase from 20 to 24 days (pro rata for part-time workers) from 1 October 2007. The rest of the leave will, depending on the results of the Government’s consultation, either be introduced:

• in one stage, from October 2008;
• in one stage, from October 2009; or,
• in two phases, increasing to 26 days in October 2008 and 28 days from October 2009.

Whether this extra holiday will have any effect on the number of "sickies" pulled remains debatable.

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