Ill employees who go to work will be off more in future, says report

Ill employees who go to work will be off more in future, says report

Employees who go to work despite feeling under the weather have higher rates of future absenteeism, according to a new report.

The study, published in June's Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, has raised questions about measures to reduce absenteeism, and if they will actually make more people go to work ill.

It included two groups of workers - about 3,750 public sector employees, mainly female; and 2,500 private-sector employees, mainly male.

Workers with more days going to work sick also had more days absent because of illness. In the first year of the study, 19 percent of public sector workers and 13 percent of private sector workers had more than five sickness presenteeism days.

The new study suggests that employees with a lot of sickness presenteeism days also have more sickness absenteeism days. This may indicate the health-promoting aspects of taking sick leave when appropriate, as shown by previous studies.

"This underscores the importance of sickness presenteeism in the evaluations of such interventions and considering the effects from a long-term perspective," author Dr Gunnar Bergstrom concluded.

The news comes after the government announced it will be introducing a new fit note next year to replace the sick note and aims to help employees get back to work as soon as they are able.

The plans are designed to help more people stay in work rather than drift into long-term sickness.