With some 650,000 employees in the UK phoning in sick to work each week, costing the economy a whopping 100 billion a year, a British charity has asked employers to encourage healthier lifestyles among staff.
Research from the British Heart Foundation charity has calculated the number of UK employees phoning in sick to work each week at two per cent of the workforce, or nearly 650,000 people.
Head of the BHF's Health at Work programme Ceri Jones has asked employers to take more responsibility for the health of those who work for them as the cost to the UK economy of absences caused by ill health is estimated at 100 billion pounds a year.
But with more than one in five health problems in the workforce related to heart and circulation conditions (16 per cent), or diabetes (6 per cent), Jones said sick leave could be significantly reduced if employers helped their workforce take simple steps towards healthier lifestyles that reduce the risk of developing these conditions.
"Stress from spending long hours at work, more of us eating fast food and not taking exercise, are clearly things that are getting worse and, while a lot of people do know what they should be doing and how they should be living, a little bit of help from employers can go a long way towards helping to change behaviour," Jones was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
The charity's figures show a discrepancy between levels of absence in different job types. The public administration and defence sector, which includes many public-sector jobs, has the highest level of absence with approximately 51,000 people (3 per cent) not getting into work in a typical week - three times the proportion of sickness absence reported in primary industries such as farming.
The research also shows that many people's ill health limits their ability to do their job properly, even when they can make it into work.
Nearly half (44 per cent) of the 8 million workers reporting a health problem lasting more than a year claim they can't fully perform their working duties. This includes 58 per cent of diabetes sufferers, and 38 per cent of people living with heart and circulation conditions.
