Analysis: The sick society
Absence due sickness has increased sharply in South Africa over the past decade. In 2011, at a given point in time 3.4% of workers were on sick leave, whereas a decade earlier, in 2001, 0.7% of workers were absent from work due to sickness. In 2011, 3.4 million workers were absent due to sickness during the year, up from 0.7 million in 2000, an increase of 397%, despite the fact that the number of people employed was essentially flat over the decade. Between 2009 and 2011, one-quarter of all workers took up in full the maximum statutory allowance for sick leave, viz. 36 days in a 3-year cycle. As indicated in the figure, sickness-related absenteeism has increased four-fold since 2007.
Percent of workers on sick leave at any point in time
Source: Statistics South Africa Labour Force Survey (2000-2007) and Quarterly Labour Force Survey (2008-2011)
The cost to the economy has been enormous. Average output per worker in 2011 was R140,855 per year - or R574.92 per working day - with the result that the loss of output due to sickness in 2011 alone totalled R3.9 billion. Cumulatively since 2000, the economy has lost R47.5 billion in real terms due to sickness. Due to the unplanned and unpredictable nature of sick leave, the knock-on disruptive effects on supply chains has probably been greater than these figures suggest, and may have led, in part, to the growing phenomenon of temporary or "contingency" workers, many of whom fill in for employees who are absent from work. As several studies have shown, roughly half (43.7%) of agency workers ("labour broker" workers) are employed as substitutes for absent employees.