ABSTRACT
The dividing line between sickness absence and absenteeism is a blurred one. Sickness absence certified by a medical practitioner can be easily delineated, but the distinction between short-term (less than three working days), self-certified absence, and absenteeism is much less clear. Employers endeavour to discourage all absence and in particular short term absence by offering no sick pay over and above that available from the National Insurance Scheme, during the early months of an employee’s service. None the less it has been observed that the frequency of sickness absence though not its magnitude decreases with an employee’s length of service (Pocock 1973) and that there has been a rising trend in absence in all groups since the early 1960s (Whitehead 1971).
