The time employees take off work because through sickness has dropped by one
day a year, according to a survey by the CBI and PPP healthcare.
But staff still take an average of 7.8 days a year which suggests that 187
million working days were lost in 1999, or 3.4 per cent of working time.
Private sector employees took, on average, 2.8 days fewer than public sector
staff. Public sector sickness absence was 9.9 days per employee in 1999,
compared to 7.1 days in the private sector.
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CBI human resources policy director John Cridland said, "One clear
message from the survey is that absence needs to be actively managed at a
senior level. Only by understanding the causes of absence can managers design
the right policies to tackle this issue."
