Research finds difference caused by stronger employment protection
Rates of employee sickness absence are lower in the UK than in Germany or France, new research has found.
Academics at Wolverhampton University analysed data from the European Company Survey for more than 2,500 private sector firms. The study revealed that UK staff sickness had dropped from 17 per cent in 2004, to 9 per cent in 2009.
Meanwhile comparable figures for staff sick leave in Germany had increased over the same period from 17 per cent to 24 per cent. In France, rates fell from 29 per cent in 2004, to 21 per cent in 2009, but this still meant they were well above sickness absence levels in the UK.
Professor Wen Wang, from Wolverhampton University, said: “Workplace absence through sickness was reported to cost British businesses £32 billion a year – our findings show that Germany and France suffer even bigger losses.”
Wang and fellow researcher, Professor Roger Seifert, linked stronger employment protection and generous sick pay to the high levels of staff sickness in mainland Europe.
In Germany – where existing laws make sacking or disciplining staff harder for employers – they found an increased workload variation, with more than half of firms in Germany having to cope with changes in workload at short notice in 2009.
The study also found that in a quarter of German firms that year, all employees had worked overtime with rewards of time off instead of additional pay.
Seifert said: “In France the government is trying to tackle what they consider to be a generous working environment, in which French workers have better conditions and better safeguards then many others.
“Some people argue that these safe guards lead to a stronger performing, high-quality workforce. But others argue it is an unsustainable cost to business.”