Worker sickness causing huge rise in costs to businesses

The hidden annual cost of employee sickness is up £30 billion since 2018 according to a new report published by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

Most of the increased cost (£25 billion) is from lower productivity, with only £5 billion due to a rise in sick days. Indeed, the report makes it clear that UK workers are among the least likely to take sick days, and most likely to work through illness although this can have a productivity cost.   

They lose the equivalent of 44 days’ productivity on average due to working through sickness, up from 35 days in 2018, and lose a further 6.7 days taking sick leave, up from 3.7 days in 2018.

IPPR is proposing a pro-business health plan which reimagines the role of business in health — clamping down on businesses that harm health and scaling up businesses that create good health — to deliver a healthy future of work for all.

The think tank argues this would help the new Government achieve health, prosperity and economic growth.

IPPR Senior Research Fellow, Dr Jamie O’Halloran, said: “Too often, UK workers are being pressured to work through sickness when that’s not appropriate — harming their wellbeing, and reducing productivity. This can be because of a bad workplace culture, poor management, financial insecurity or just weak understanding of long-term conditions among UK employers.”

The report calls for a new “do no harm” duty for employers, regulating them on health outcomes, not just safety inputs, and also suggests a new tax incentive for companies that commit to significant improvements in the health of their workforce.

It also suggests introducing compulsory reporting on worker health — modelled on climate emissions reporting — to help private investors differentiate between health-orientated and health-harming businesses.

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