One in ten employees sometimes admits to report sick without being real

Anyone who feels so sick in the morning that going to work or working at home is impossible, can stay absent three days a year in companies with at least 50 employees without walking to the doctor for a letter of illness. That this is sometimes abused, according to a survey with a thousand working Belgians by HR service provider SD Worx. On average, one in ten employees sometimes admits that they are absent without being sick or without a valid reason.

« This figure is higher in SMEs (13 percent), in organizations with more than 250 employees this is 8 percent, » says SD Worx. « It also varies according to the sector: this figure is twice as high in the industrial and construction sector: there says one in five (20 percent) that they are sometimes absent at work without a valid reason. Employees in sectors such as training, in professional, scientific and technical services and health care say this to do the least (only 6 or 7 percent). »

Two days

According to the new coalition agreement, the measure is reduced to two days a year, and three -quarters of the SMEs indicate that it is satisfied with this in a survey of the same SD Worx.

Read too. Measure to help the long -term sick get back to work is bad with doctors: « Could there be a perverse effect »

« The planned restriction up to a maximum of twice an absence without a medical certificate per year can count on support from three -quarters of all SMEs. After all, unforeseen absences because of illness can be quickly feel in the workplace, » says Anneleen Verstraeten, Legal Expert SME at SD Worx. “Almost one of the five Flemish SMEs experiences the absorption of one -day absences as the most problematic. A quarter experiences Monday as the most difficult day, followed by the Friday – but the majority finds all working days just as difficult to catch in the planning. Also the employees confirm that their own team is having any reason to be an average of the ten workers.”