Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Employee relationsHR practiceSickness absenceTrade unions

Public sector staff work when sick more than private sector workers

by Personnel Today 29 Mar 2010
by Personnel Today 29 Mar 2010

Public sector staff are more likely to come into work when sick than private sector employees, research by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has revealed.

The union said the data raised questions about the government’s bid – outlined in Budget 2010 supporting documents – to find efficiencies by cracking down on absence in the sector.

The research found that public sector workers were more likely to work when too ill to do so and less likely to call in sick. However public sector workers take longer periods of time off sick.

Within the past year 41% of public sector staff went into work sick when they should have stayed at home, compared to 36% of private sector workers.

In total 33% of public sector workers said their reason for doing so was because people depend on the job they did and they did not want to let the team down.

A further 18% did not want to give their colleagues extra work, which compared with 12% in the private sector.

Public sector employers are also more likely to be supportive of those with long-term illnesses and have good sickness policies, the TUC found.

About one in eight public sector employees said they were concerned about losing pay by not going into work, whereas 23% of private sector workers had this concern.

Brendan Barber, the TUC’s general secretary, said: “People often talk about a ‘sicknote culture’ in the UK. Many seem to think that public sector workers are particularly guilty of taking time off work when they are not really unwell.

“The truth is we are really a nation of mucus troopers, where workers – particularly those in the public sector – routinely go into work when they are too ill and should be at home. And they do this – not because they are afraid of their boss – but because they know they do vital jobs in over-stretched workplaces.

“Absence rates have been falling over time in the public and private sectors. It is a myth that there are big, quick and easy savings from new policies that assume that sickness absence is mostly skiving.”

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
The BNP and the teaching profession: the price of political freedom?
next post
Surrey County Council works with Jobcentre Plus to offer LEPs

You may also like

Statutory sick pay reforms would save £4bn

19 May 2022

How should HR handle the highest inflation in...

18 May 2022

Lack of flexibility pushes half of women to...

16 May 2022

Spain plans menstrual leave for painful periods

13 May 2022

Deliveroo signs deal with union GMB to cover...

12 May 2022

Queen’s Speech: Exclusivity contracts for low-paid workers to...

9 May 2022

Are we happy now? New research Sugar-coats working...

6 May 2022

Alan Sugar calls PwC Friday afternoons off a...

6 May 2022

Brain fog: the menopause symptom impacting women at...

4 May 2022

Post Office staff strike over below-inflation pay offer

3 May 2022
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+