Workers Fear Pay and Job Cuts as Sickness "Penalty"

In the wake of looming job cuts after the recession, many employers are taking hard-line approaches to tackle absence in the workplace, while workers across the UK believe that they will be sacked for taking sick days, according to a new report.

The Labour Research Department discovered that some employers in private firms are setting absence targets of zero, enforced by revoking bonus pay to those off sick.  Other penalties include cutting sick and profit share pay if attendance targets are not met, with some employees even seeing their pay being moved to a lower grade for six months.

These findings were the result of a survey of 800 union reps carried out in October 2010.  Away from the private sector, as this report came out it emerged that managing sickness absence is also a current concern for public sector employers, with hospitals in Sandwell and Birmingham sending out thank you letters to praise workers with good attendance because overall sickness levels were unacceptable.

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(Article sourced from www.lrd.org.uk on 27 November 2010)