2. Understanding sickness absence

Negotiations and policy updates may focus on statistics or evidence of “excessive sickness absence” or “days lost” (lost to the employer). But starting from that perspective can gloss over the details behind the numbers on health-related absence or disability. A failure to understand and make proper provision for sickness absence can fuel “presenteeism”, people working when they should be off sick. A low sickness absence level is not always the sign of a healthy workplace, as has been pointed out by successive Health and wellbeing at work surveys undertaken by the CIPD HR professionals’ body and the insurance firm SimplyHealth.

The government’s 2017 Improving lives: the future of work, health and disability report acknowledged the need to tackle presenteeism which can result in a loss of productivity and impact negatively on an individual’s mental and physical health. In its guide to negotiating sickness absence agreements, the UNISON public services union argues that presenteeism results in 1.5 days lost for every day of sickness absence. It can lead to longer recovery periods and decreased productivity — if a manager considers a worker too ill to be at work, they should send them home.