Sick day claims not true: ICTU

THE Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) yesterday rejected claims by employers group IBEC that sick days taken by Irish workers cost businesses over €1.5 billion a year.

ICTU general secretary David Begg said IBEC’s research was “bogus” and overstated the level of absenteeism in the Irish workplace. While IBEC claimed workers called in sick on an average 7.8 days each year, costing employers 14 million working days, Mr Begg quoted research published last month in an EU-wide journal on workplace health that said Ireland had the second-lowest sick day rate in the EU.

Mr Begg said the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found the sick day rate in Ireland was 8.3%, behind only Greece at 6.7% and ahead of Britain’s 11.7%, Germany’s 18.3% and Finland’s 24%. ICTU disputed IBEC’s figures, saying they were based on “dubious science” and aimed to portray an absenteeism problem where none existed.