Tuesday, 20 April. 2010

  

Research by The Work Foundation released this month reports that 'sickness presence' could account for 1.5 times more working time lost than the cost of sickness absence, which has been estimated at around £13bn annually.

 

The Work Foundation reports that sickness presence could be costing more because organisations are 'unaware of hidden costs and under-estimated employee ill-health' and unlike sickeness absence, sickness presence is significantly related to performance.

 

This is all very well for office and factory work, however, the hospitality industry has a long history of high absenteeism, probably due to the large proportion of seasonal and casual work available.  However, can you afford to have a sick person in a food and drink preparation area?  From a hygiene and safety point of view, sickness presence can be lethal ... so how much should we be insisting that employees are in work when they should be at home recovering?

 

 REGULATION (EC) No 852/2004 ANNEX II Chapter VIII para. 2 states:

"No person suffering from, or being a carrier of a disease likely to be transmitted through food or afflicted, for example, with infected wounds, skin infections, sores or diarrhoea is to be permitted to handle food or enter any food-handling area in any capacity if there is any likelihood of direct or indirect contamination. Any person so affected and employed in a food business and who is likely to come into contact with food is to report immediately the illness or symptoms, and if possible their causes, to the food business operator."

 

Katherine Ashby, of The Work Foundation, says "In the current economic climate, with high job insecurity making employees more wary of taking time off, understanding the causes and effects of sickness presence is crucial."  One of the key recommendations from The Work Foundation is "Are absence management policies applied consistently?"

 

Good employee relations is essential at the best of times - by having procedures in place to deal with sickness and absenteeism, you can avoid the pitfalls of both sickness absence and sickness presence.  Check All4Hospitality's Human Resources & Staffing section for help, advice and guidance.