Sickness Absence in the Private Sector of Greece: Comparing Shipyard Industry and National Insurance Data

Evangelos C Alexopoulos,Efi Mikelatou,Eleni Jelastopulu,Eleni C Konstantinou,Dimitra Tanagra,Georgios Merekoulias

doi:10.3390/ijerph9041171

Abstract

Approximately 3% of employees are absent from work due to illness daily in Europe, while in some countries sickness absence exceeds 20 days per year. Based on a limited body of reliable studies, Greek employees in the private sector seem to be absent far less frequently (<5 days/year) compared to most of the industrialized world. The aim of this study was to estimate the levels of sickness absence in the private sector in Greece, using shipyard and national insurance data. Detailed data on absenteeism of employees in a large shipyard company during the period 1999–2006 were utilized. National data on compensated days due to sickness absence concerning all employees (around 2 million) insured by the Social Insurance Institute (IKA, the largest insurance scheme in Greece) were retrieved from the Institute’s annual statistical reports for the period 1987–2006. Sick-leave days per employee and sick-leave rate (%) were calculated, among other indicators. In the shipyard cohort, the employment time loss due to sick leave was 1%. The mean number of sick-leave days per employee in shipyards ranged between 4.6 and 8.7 and sick-leave rate (sickness absenteeism rate) varied among 2% and 3.7%. The corresponding indicators for IKA were estimated between 5 and 6.3 sick-leave days per insured employee (median 5.8), and 2.14–2.72% (median 2.49%), respectively. Short sick-leave spells (<4 days) may account at least for the 25% of the total number of sick-leave days, currently not recorded in national statistics. The level of sickness absence in the private sector in Greece was found to be higher than the suggested by previous reports and international comparative studies, but still remains one of the lowest in the industrialized world. In the 20-years national data, the results also showed a 7-year wave in sickness absence indexes (a decrease during the period 1991–1997 and an increase in 1998–2004) combined with a small yet significant decline as a general trend. These observations deserve detailed monitoring and could only partly be attributed to the compensation and unemployment rates in Greece so other possible reasons should be explored.

Highlights

Monitoring of sickness absences is an essential part of occupational health care
In the 20-years national data, the results showed a 7-year wave in sickness absence indexes
We have described and compared time series of data on sickness absence originated by (i) shipyard employees; and (ii) the largest social insurance fund in Greece, which covers the majority

Summary

Introduction

Monitoring of sickness absences is an essential part of occupational health care. Even though sickness absence is not a simple function of ill health, and includes psychosocial factors and coping behaviors, it still remains a valuable tool to assess the impact of disease or other factors on a worker’s capacity and health status [1,2]. The European Council and most organizations calculate on a yearly basis the compensated working days per employee (days for which employees receive salary compensation) lost due to sickness or injury [9,10,11,12]. Other reasons such as vacations, maternity and paternity leave, educational leave or strikes can contribute to absenteeism, but are usually not monitored [10,12,14]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion