Absenteeism costing SA billions in lost production

The report is based on figures from the 2011 Adcorp Employment Index, which showed that 3,4 million workers were absent because of sick leave. It says that this is an increase of 397% from the 2000 figures when only 700 000 workers couldn't work because they were sick.

Adcorp says that in real terms the economy has lost a cumulative R47,5bn in production since 2000 and says the levels of absenteeism were most pronounced in the public sector with about 30% of public sector workers being absent for health reasons compared with just 9,2% of workers in the private sector.

It blames poor managerial oversight, lax administrative controls and out-of-date information systems for the poor performance of the government sector.

For more:

• Fin24: Adcorp sounds alarm over sick leave