Today is 'National sickie day' for Britain as 350,000 take the day off

Today is 'National sickie day' for Britain as 350,000 take the day off

By Scott Warren

Last updated at 12:55 PM on 01st February 2010

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British workers are forecast to be off work in droves today, with 350,000 estimated to be taking a sickie.

'National Sickie Day' will likely cost the nation more than £30million in lost business opportunities, reduced levels of service and output, and salary and overtime payments.

The findings, released following a survey by Employment Law Advisory Services (ELAS), come as it emerged that 25 per cent of bosses now accept and email or text message from staff to inform them they are ill and will not be coming to work.

350,000 to miss work: Today - the first Monday in February - is known as National Sickie Day

ELAS's Peter Mooney said accepting non-verbal notification of sickness made ‘throwing a sickie’ easier and said he feared for the cost to the national economy.

Mr Mooney said: 'The traditional phone call was always a way for bosses to decipher whether staff members were bluffing or genuinely ill.

'But now, as our research shows, many employers are dispensing with it, which leads me to think that the system will be open to more abuse than ever.

'We need staff fit and healthy and willing to work hard to get business booming again. I do wonder if allowing them to text or email in sick is the most affective way of doing that.

'However, our research also concluded that employers who accepted electronic forms of communication for sickness were also the ones who trusted their staff the most.'

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Of the 1,500 bosses interviewed for the nationwide survey, half said they did not believe employees who complained of being ill.

They also reported a raft of pathetic excuses for their absence, including one worker who said he couldn’t get into work because the road outside his house was too busy to cross.

Another said his mother-in-law was supposed to die at the weekend but didn’t, and a third reported he had a cold and was sneezing so much it made his teeth hurt.

Mr Mooney added: 'At least the dodgy excuses can give bosses something to laugh at but the reality is that absenteeism is a serious concern for modern business.'