Employers unconvinced fit note works as absence costs hit £17bn - CBI

Its Absence and Workplace Health Survey conducted with Pfizer revealed that employers were disappointed with the early results of the initiative. Despite introducing the fit note in 2010, the rate of absence was marginally higher than in 2009, when employees averaged 6.4 sick days, the lowest rate since the survey began in 1987. Over £2.7bn of the £17bn bill is generated by 30.4 million days of non-genuine sickness absence. This figure, it added, does not include other indirect costs such as lower customer service and lost productivity. Despite strong support for the initiative,...