Absenteeism is a common vocabulary faced by almost all employers.

Continued
absenteeism can be damaging to an organisation, as there is potential loss of efficiency
and effectiveness as well as a fall in customer service and not to forget a strain on the
absent employee’s co-workers. Absenteeism not only impacts on production levels; it
impacts on other staff. It is a major problem faced by almost all employers today.
Employees are absent from work and thus the work suffers. Absenteeism of employees
from work leads to back logs, pilling of work and thus work delay.

Absenteeism is of two types:

1. Innocent absenteeism
Is one in which the employee is absent from work due to genuine cause of
reason. It may be due to his illness or personal family problem or any other real
reason
2. Culpable absenteeism
Is one in which a person is absent from work without any genuine reason or
cause. He may be pretending to be ill or just wanted a holiday and stay at home.

The Employment Act 1955 under Section 15(2) states that “An employee shall be
deemed to have broken his contract of service with the employer if he has been
continuously absent from work for more than two consecutive days without prior leave
from his employer, unless he has reasonable excuse for such absence and has
informed or attempted to inform his employer of such excuse prior to or at the earliest
opportunity during such absence”. Under the Employment Act 1955, section 60(F) 
(2) An employee who absents himself on sick leave (a) which is not certified by a
registered medical practitioner or a medical officer; or(b) which is certified by such
registered medical practitioner or medical officer or a dental surgeon, but without
informing or attempting to inform his employer of such sick leave within forty-eight hours
of the commencement thereof, shall be deemed to absent himself from work without the
permission of his employer and without reasonable excuse for the days on which he is
so absent from work.
The study concluded that providing positive incentives to workers in the form of those
motivational factors that normally influence workers to be absent is better than imposing
penalties for discouraging absenteeism. The best reward for workers with low
absenteeism is to grant additional time off for personal matters. Workers are influenced
to a lesser extent by deterrents, loss of pay and benefits and loss of promotion
opportunities and discharge, imposed for frequent absenteeism. Finally a combination
of incentives (additional time off) and penalties (loss of benefits or job) with the primary
emphasis on motivational incentives is the most effective approach to reducing
absenteeism. Managerial and professional employees generally have the most
interesting jobs and the greatest amount of responsibility. They feel valued and
committed. Their job is a career, not just a way of earning a living. Tackling this issue
strategically means focusing efforts where there is the greatest likelihood of a good
return on time, effort and money.

Objective of employee absenteeism

1. To identify the reason for absenteeism

2. To measure the employee absenteeism level
3. To identify steps requires to decrease the absenteeism
4. To study, employee working conditions
5. To identify factors that motivates the employees, which minimize absenteeism
6. To provide suggestion in the form of solutions to reduce the rate of absenteeism
Recommendation

Overcoming the problem of regular absenteeism requires an extensive strategy

that should include incentives, as well as sanctions. Naturally the ideal is that
employers should tackle and overcome the problem in co-operation with their
trade union(s) or other employee representatives. The point of departure of such
a strategy is determining and implementing an “acceptable” standard of
absenteeism due to illness, after which follows a counseling process with
informal and formal steps, followed by action plans until an ultimatum and final
investigation that would normally result in dismissal. The main objective
throughout should be to combat abuse and not to punish persons who are really
ill or have become disabled. There are very clear guidelines for such cases in
statutory codes of good practice.

Administration of medical certificates should also be improved. Developing a

good dose of cynicism about such documents (which in effect are merely
hearsay evidence of which the content and format need to be acceptable) is
advisable. It is important to set clear guidelines about what must appear in a
certificate before the employer would accept it. The Basic Conditions of
Employment Act contains some of these guidelines. A clear policy on when
certificates are required is also necessary, e.g. for absence on Mondays or
Fridays and when the employee is absent due to illness on more than two
occasions in an 8-week period. Where abuse of certificates is suspected, further
investigation should be undertaken with a view to institute disciplinary steps. In
suitable cases, medical practitioners who issue certificates in the knowledge that
it constitutes abuse may also be reported to their professional body.

It is strongly recommended that incentives be given to those who hold a good

attendance record. This may take several forms, but need not be excessively
costly. It may entail money (e.g. in the form of bonuses), pro rata additional
holiday leave or something more practical such as food coupons. More
controversial, but extremely effective, is the publication on notice boards within
the enterprise of certain information, including a graphic representation of the
absenteeism pattern and the impact thereof in rands and cents.