The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has today told UK employees to stop struggling into work when they are sick, and warned employers to ensure the genuinely ill stayed at home.
In a new study the TUC found as many as one in five of those surveyed had been to work when too ill in the last month alone, and nearly half said they had gone in when suffering from illness in the last year.
Sickness absence at work in 2003 was the lowest since Confederation of British Industry (CBI) surveys began, falling six per cent from the previous year.
The TUC said too many people were now going to work when they would be better off recovering at home, rather than infecting their colleagues.
Part of the reason for this, according to the report, was advertising campaigns for cold remedies which frightened people into worrying about what could happen to their jobs if they didn’t make it into work.
The TUC poll showed the most common reason for going to work when ill was a fear of letting people down (42 per cent) with a further 16 per cent saying they went to work because they would have lost pay.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said UK staff were not the nation of malingerers that some painted and many people struggled into work when they were too ill to do so because they did not want to let people down.
“Of course employers will want to deal with malingerers, but they should also make sure that people who are genuinely ill stay at home.
“The rest of us don’t want to do extra work for those pulling a sickie but nor do we want to pick up germs from colleagues or this with whom we share overcrowded public transport
“The TUC’s message is don’t be a mucus trooper - look after yourself properly,” he said.
