Welcome to our latest Coffee Break in which we look at the latest legal and practical developments impacting UK employers.
Sickness absence reported to be at 10 year high
Following on from recent figures from the Office for National Statistics which reported on rising ill-health and economic inactivity due to long-term sickness from 2019 to 2023 (see our earlier Coffee Break), the trend has been reflected in a recent Health and Wellbeing at Work report published by CIPD and SimplyHealth.
The latest report has attracted significant media attention with its headline finding that sickness absence is at a ten year high, reaching levels greater than those experienced during the initial outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, with sickness absence increasing to 78 days on average per employee per year (two days more than recorded in 2019).
The report finds that stress continues to be one of the main causes of sickness absence both short and long term, with 76% of respondents having stress-related absence in their organisation over the last year. Causes of this are reported to be heavy workloads, followed by management style, as well as personal factors such as health issues and relationships/family. Musculoskeletal conditions are also a prominent cause of sickness absence and may be attributed to more working from home, where the ergonomic set-up may not be adequate for the employee's working conditions.
Covid-19 also continues to have a significant impact on absence with over a...
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