Sick days at work hit highest level in eight years in NI

Northern Ireland workers called in sick more in 2022 than in any of the other previous eight years, a report suggests.

Ulster University Economic Policy Centre (UUEPC) analysed and compared sickness absence across the UK.

Staff took on average six sick days in 2022 (2.7%) compared to 4.2 days (1.9%) in 2019.

The most common reasons for workers' absences were accidents, poisoning and infections.

The report said that in the UK, Northern Ireland had the second-lowest increase.

Wales had a rate of 3.6% in 2022; Scotland 3% and England 2.5%.

• Sick days at work hit highest level for 10 years

The report said the top reasons across the UK for calling in sick were "accidents, poisoning, infectious diseases and skin disorders", accounting for 26%.

"Minor aliments, including coughs, colds and gastrointestinal illnesses, accounted for just under a quarter of days lost (24%)," it added.

Ageing population

Gillian Martin, senior economist at UUEPC, said the increased rate of workers being absent was due to many people having a long-term health conditions and a growing and ageing population.

"In 2022, 5.1 million days were lost due to sickness across Northern Ireland, an increase from 3.8 million in 2019," she said.

The research found that 35% of people in Northern Ireland have a long-term health condition which "coupled with NI's growing and ageing population, suggests that sickness and therefore absences are likely to be a lingering issue", she added.

Ms Martin said firms and managers needed to be supported and encouraged to act to reduce further negative impacts.

Health and social workers had the highest level of sick leave compared to other sectors in the UK

Those working in health and social work had the highest absence rate of 4.2% in 2022 across the UK.

Workers in information and communication had the lowest absence rate of 1.4%, which the report suggested was linked to workers being able to work from home. The highest increase in sickness across all sectors was in the accommodation and food sector which rose to 2.9% in 2022, an increase of 1.6% since 2019.

Civil Service sickness

The report found that in the public sector, the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) had continually higher sickness absences compared to the civil services in the rest of the UK and Republic of Ireland."Overall, in the NICS, 5.7% of working days were lost in 2022/23 compared to 5.9% in 2019/20," the report said.

"The direct salary cost of absence in 2022-23 was £39m, or 3.7% of the NICS pay bill."

Absences were higher among more junior civil service and public sector workers.

"When broken down by grade level, the general trend is for absences to decrease as seniority increases. For instance, in 2022-23 individuals who were grade five and above (senior civil servants) lost 6.1 working days per staff year compared to 13.8 workings days lost for administrative staff," Ms Martin added.