190m days lost to sickness in 2010, says CBI

摘要

The UK economy lost 190 million working days to sickness absence last year, with each employee taking an average of 6.5 days off sick, according to the latest CBI/Pfizer Absence and Workplace Health Survey. Despite the introduction of the new 'fit note' in 2010, the rate of absence last year was marginally higher than in 2009, when employees averaged 6.4 sick days, the lowest rate since the survey began in 1987. The survey, which covered 223 private sector companies and public sector organisations who together employ more than one million employees (equivalent to 4.1 per cent of the UK workforce), found that employees in the public sector took more sick days than those in the private sector, an average of 8.1 days a year compared with 5.9 days.