Editorial: Work sickness absence levels in Northern Ireland are too high

It was reported yesterday that Northern Ireland’s sickness absence is at an eight year-high (‘Report: Northern Ireland sickness absence rate reaches eight year high with 5.1million days were lost in 2022,’ January 3).

Sickness absence rates in the province rose to 2.7% in 2022 from 1.9% in 2019 – the highest since 2015 – according to a new report from the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre. This equates to six days per worker.

Wales and Scotland had a slightly worse absence rate than Northern Ireland, but England remained lowest of the four UK countries (2.5%).

In the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS), 5.7% of working days were lost in 2022/23 compared to 5.9% in 2019/20. The direct salary cost of absence in 2022/23 was £39 million, or 3.7% of the NICS pay bill. This is an appallingly high level.

Yet when something such as sickness absence is discussed in Northern Ireland, or by Stormont politicians, or indeed in other countries where sickness absence is high, it can often seem as if someone else is to blame other than the society or organisation in question.

When, for example, this newspaper has previously examined the fact that NI has some of the highest disability benefit levels in the UK the mere reportage of such a statistic can be denounced as cruel, and an attack on disabled people.

This is a nonsensical response. It is obviously important to try to figure out why certain workplaces and communities have high sickness levels.

There are sometimes valid and sympathetic reasons for the absence. But there are sometimes no such reasons. On the contrary, sometimes it is because there is a culture of never trying to tackle absence levels.

In NI, we can be too quick to blame the impact of the Troubles for an array of problems such as sick leave in the public sector.

Very high absence levels cost companies or governments a lot of money. Organisations can push down such absence by understanding and tackling the underlying causes, and this should be encouraged.