Report: British workers average 10 unscheduled days of absences yearly
London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – British employees logged an average of 10 unscheduled days of absence yearly, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers released Tuesday.
American workers reported a lower 5.5 days of unscheduled days of absences annually, Asian workers registered 4.5 days and Western European workers had 9.7 days of unscheduled absences.
According to the study, British companies lost $48 billion (GBP 32 billion) in lost productivity yearly due to the unscheduled leaves based on an average $37,500 (GBP 25,000) annual salary of a British worker. About 80 percent of work absences are because of sickness, while 20 percent are due to jury service and compassionate leave.
According to human resources experts, frequent absences are badly affecting British industry, since short-term unscheduled absences often become long periods of leaves. The experts pointed out that not all workers who for filed for sick leave are actually ill, but could be using real or imagined medical conditions to be away from work or delay returning to their jobs.
By sector, British public workers had the worst record of unscheduled absences with an average of 12.2 days a year. Bank workers logged an average of 7.8 days, while retail and leisure employees registered 11.5 days.
A 2004 study by the British Cabinet Office found that public workers average two weeks sick leave annually, which cost the government $ 552 million (GBP 368 million) yearly. The average sick leave by civil servants in 2003 was 10 days, up from the 9.8 days average in 2002.
The government then targeted to reduce the average to 7.2 days by 2003, but apparently failed. According to a TUC survey released that year, the reason behind the frequent absences of 64 percent of civil servants was stress at the workplace.
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