Wednesday 5 June 2013 2:00pm BST Employers have to expect a certain amount of staff sickness absence and many implement initiatives to keep such leave to a minimum. However, when employees suffer from conditions that can mean many weeks or months  More...
17 May 2013 12:54

The Government has pledged to establish a new national health and work assessment and advisory service by the end of next year at the latest, in a move that promises to bring profound changes to the profile and prominence of occupational health. The  More...
30 January 2013 00:01

Line managers still tend to be the "gatekeepers" for absence recording in most organisations, latest research has argued. The study of the use of triggers in managing absence carried out by XpertHR, Occupational Health's sister resource, poll  More...
21 November 2012 00:01

Falling absence levels may point to a rise in presenteeism rather than successful absence management strategies, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Research by the CIPD and private health insurer SimplyHealth f  More...
09 October 2012 10:07

Should employers support employee health beyond simply managing absence? Welfare reform and the sickness absence review have placed employers right in the centre of managing absence. What impact can health benefits have on this, asks Emma Page? Acco  More...
08 October 2012 09:38

NHS staff in England had a sickness absence rate of 4.12%, which equated to about 15.56 million days lost to sickness, statistics published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (formerly the NHS Information Centre) has concluded. The   More...
05 September 2012 10:42

The Court of Appeal has ruled that an employee was entitled to be paid annual leave under the Working Time Directive, even though she had been absent from work through sickness. In a landmark ruling, the court also ruled that the employee,  More...
25 July 2012 16:03

Long-term sick leave costs UK business around £3.1 billion each year, a study has calculated. The research, by the Centre for Economics and Business Research on behalf of income protection specialist Unum, estimated that businesses are spending  More...
02 July 2012 13:38

Employees who come into work when feeling ill will not be able to perform to the best of their ability, which has a knock-on effect on productivity. What can occupational health do to help manage this situation? Jane Downey investigates. Presenteeis  More...
02 July 2012 09:00

A recent survey has revealed the impact of government changes on provision of occupational health services. Nic Paton reports. If you want evidence of the two-track Britain that exists when it comes to occupational health provision, you d  More...
02 July 2012 09:00

Employees who fall sick during their annual leave have the right to re-take that annual leave a later date, irrespective of when they fell ill, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled today. The ECJ stated that "the purpose of entitlement to p  More...
21 June 2012 14:53

A total of 131 million days were lost because of sickness absence in the UK during 2011, down more than a quarter from the 178 million days recorded in 1993, according to official figures. The figures were published by the Office for National S  More...
01 June 2012 09:00

Nearly two-thirds (60%) of employers believe that the fit note has made no difference to sickness absence levels since its introduction in 2010, a report has found. The research, from manufacturers' organisation EEF and health insurance provider Wes  More...
14 May 2012 12:30

An increasingly relentless "always on" workplace culture is encouraging employees that are off work and unwell never fully to switch off, a business psychologist and health insurer have warned. According to research by Professor Cary Cooper ,   More...
27 February 2012 09:09

The Government has launched a new "Health for Work" sickness absence advice line that, it is hoped, will encourage smaller employers to better support workers on sick leave. The free advice line will be run by NHS Plus and provides help and su  More...
31 January 2012 09:30

A vocational rehabilitation model using occupational therapists challenges traditional OH approaches. Gerald Mcfeely explains. An innovative model of vocational rehabilitation is being piloted by NHS Lothian aimed primarily at employees returni  More...
03 January 2012 10:05

Phased returns to work and return-to-work plans that incorporate input from the absent employee are among the most successful tools for managing long-term absence, research has argued. The study, by XpertHR, has also identified keeping in touch by p  More...
01 December 2011 10:00

Employers believe that flexibility and communication are the most effective approaches to helping employees return to work after long-term sickness absence, a survey has found. According to research by XpertHR, 40% of organisations cited p  More...
25 October 2011 14:56

I have been paying sick pay to one of my part-time employees during a period of absence on medical grounds, but I have now discovered that he is still working for another employer at the same time as claiming to be too sick to work for me. I think this   More...
27 September 2011 09:33

Absence from work equated to 2.8% of working time in 2010, or the equivalent of an average of 6.5 days per employee at a cost of £553 per head, according to research from online HR intelligence source XpertHR. The analysis of data gathered fr  More...
29 July 2011 16:13