TUC report explodes enduring myth of "sicknote Britain"

Employers' complaints about workers' time off sick are completely unfounded, according to a new report from the TUC.

Sicknote Britain? counters the common accusations that public sector workers are always taking "sickies", stress is not a serious illness and too many people are on Incapacity Benefit.

The TUC's research shows that British workers are less likely to take short-term time off sick than their counterparts in any European country except Denmark. And only Austria, Germany and Ireland lose less working time due to long-term absence.

Official statistics show that short-term absence is higher in the private sector (where workers take an average of 5.5 days a year) than the public sector (4.9 days).

Long-term absence is more common among public sector workers, but the report says this is linked to the more stressful nature of many jobs in the sector.

A bigger problem, the TUC claims, is the high number of workers (75%) who struggle into work when they are actually too ill to work.

"Sicknote Britain is an urban myth," commented TUC general secretary Brendan Barber at the launch of the report. "When employers complain of sicknote Britain, they are attacking some of Europe's most loyal employees."

If employers are serious about reducing levels of sickness absence, the TUC says, they should be looking at ways of making work more flexible and introducing greater work-life balance into workers' daily routine.

Sicknote Britain? can be downloaded from www.tuc.org. uk/welfare/tuc-9208-f0.pdf