Absence of Workers Costing the Country
Sep 17, 2013 154 view(s)
Absence of workers highly affecting the nation’s economy. 3.96 million workers were absent during the year due to sickness, which is a rather a large number than compared to the year 2000 in which it was 0.7 million.
According to the latest Employment Index from Adcorp, the economy shed 34,645 jobs during August. However the biggest job loss was seen in the permanent jobs ,which shed 26,820 jobs during the month followed by 12,845 temporary jobs shed. Great job loss was seen in the mining sector, construction, transport and financial services resulting in 26,000 job losses.
As said above the absence of millions of workers has increased upto an index of 466% considering the fact that the number of people were employed was essentially flat over the decade.
The unbelievable and unpredictable amount of sick leaves seriously affected the supply chain. Loane Sharp- the Labour Economist at Adcorp Holdings said that “It may move towards the growing phenomenon of the workers probably filling the place of other workers who are absent.”
From 2009 to 2011, about one quarter of the workers demanded for the maximum statutory allowance for 36 days in three year cycle for their sick leave. From this index it can be well understood that absence due to sickness has increased four times since 2007 resulting in the enormous economic cost.
The average output per worker in 2012 was R145,233/year or R586.19/working day in 2011, this loss of output had reached to a total of R4.29 billion due to sickness. The economy has been affected by R55.2 billion since 2000 due to sickness.
The absenteeism arises for many reasons. In some genuine cases of illness, the workplace and the type of the work done by the worker may be the reason of their repetitive absence. In some dummy cases, the intake of maximum sick leave allowances depends on how acceptable those allowances are and the extent to which the leave is monitored.
Sharp also added that “The ongoing sick leaves among the workers in South Africa is increasing at an alarming rate since last ten years and the recent index states there are no signs of decrease in these numbers.”
