When the study was presented, the AK called for protection against dismissal for sick employees. She is also concerned with a legal regulation according to which time off in lieu cannot be consumed during sick leave (similar to vacation) and that home office must not be misused to encourage employees to work sick. “Nine out of ten employees go to work sick,” said Ines Stilling, Head of Social Affairs at the Chamber of Labor (AK) Vienna.
“This means that presenteeism for employees is the rule rather than the exception,” Stilling continues. The most common reason for going to work sick is not wanting to let your colleagues down. “Employees thus assume a high degree of responsibility in order not to endanger the company – a responsibility that actually lies with the company,” says Stilling.
Contacted by supervisors
A total of 6,506 people took part in the AK survey. The results are not representative in a statistical sense, but they still provide valuable information on the reasons why employees go to work on sick leave, according to the AK.
Almost half of those surveyed said they were contacted by their boss when they were sick. The proportion of employees under the age of 30 is slightly higher than that of the over 50-year-olds. Blue collar workers are contacted more often than white collar workers.
The most common reason for contact from bosses was the estimated length of sick leave, 37 percent of those surveyed had already experienced this. About one in six respondents reported that supervisors want to know the reason for sick leave, which is not permitted under labor law. Five percent of those surveyed were asked to work from home or to appear at work despite being on sick leave.
Got to work despite a cold
According to the AK survey, the sectors in which employees most often go to work sick are the hospitality industry and retail. It is followed by healthcare and the transport and traffic sector. Many employees in these sectors have contact with customers, which increases the risk of infection for them, the AK notes.
Two-thirds of employees in the hotel and hospitality industry said they went to work with a cold, even without taking a CoV test. In the healthcare sector, too, a particularly large number of employees stated that they went to work sick; however, they carried out a CoV test more frequently beforehand than is the case in the gastro. The AK reported that presenteeism was less pronounced in the areas of media, journalism and IT. Here, however, almost a quarter of the employees still state that they also work with a cold.
Job loss on sick leave
Every tenth respondent stated that they had been pressured to end their employment while on sick leave. This was most common in the hospitality and transportation industries. Every twelfth respondent stated that they had been dismissed without notice while on sick leave. Most of the cases also affect the hotel and catering industry, according to the AK.
