Working while ill – when sick leave would leave colleagues overburdened

Nearly half (46 %) of the members of SAK-affiliated trade unions were ill at work at some time during 2011, even though they could have taken sick leave. Slightly more than half (52 %) of these employees explained that they chose to work at these times out of a sense of solidarity with their colleagues. They were ill at work, because otherwise their colleagues would have suffered a greater workload.

This insight into the realities of working in Finland was among the findings of an SAK survey of working conditions based on interviews with 1,207 working members of SAK-affiliated trade union members in February–March 2012.

Sick leave tending towards extended absence

More than one third (35 %) of SAK-affiliated union members took no sick leave at all during 2011. Of the 783 respondents who had been ill, some 40 per cent were off work for longer than 10 days, 32 per cent were away for between 4 and 10 days, and 27 per cent took 1 to 3 days off.

– As a conservative estimate, it would appear that more than five times as many working days were lost through employee illnesses lasting longer than 10 days than through absences from work for between 1 and 3 days only. Increasing attention really must be paid to reducing extended absences due to illness. We cannot solve this problem by withholding pay for the first day of illness or enforcing other waiting periods, explains SAK Occupational Health Specialist Kari Haring.

Haring says that it is essential for workplaces to tackle factors that cause incapacity to work. Measures are needed that will maintain working capacity, ensuring fair management practices and support from supervisors.

– Employees must also have a greater say in the circumstances of their own work, as we find that the proportion of absences due to illness tends to fall as employees gain more influence at the workplace, Haring stresses.

Stressful working hours familiar to half of all employees in SAK industries

More than half of the members of SAK-affiliated trade unions are engaged in forms of work that are regarded as particularly stressful, meaning shift work, night work, periodic work, or work that involves continual travelling. Employees not engaged in regular day work find that their jobs cause much more harm than the average for employees in industries organised by SAK-affiliated trade unions, with up to 43 per cent of night workers and 37 per cent of shift workers complaining that their working hours are harmful to health.

For the sake of employee job satisfaction and longer working careers, it is important to make working time less stressful. Fast forward rotating shift work schemes, consolidated periods of time off, free periods of between 10 and 12 hours between shifts and minimised consecutive night shifts are all ways of reducing the drawbacks of shift work.