Finns taking more sick leave from work than before
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Absenteeism from work due to illness appears to be increasing in Finland, according to a study by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH). The institute has issued new figures on sick leaves taken by employees of ten municipalities. The trend is also apparent from data from the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (KELA).
FIOH studies working conditions of employees in ten different municipalities each year. Last year, women employees of the local authorities in question took an average of more than 20 days of sick leave.
This marks an increase of three days from the beginning of the decade.
Men were off work an average 13 days a year, and the increase in days off due to illness has not been as steep as for women, according to the fresh study.
Research professor Jussi Vahtera of FIOH sees an increase in work-related stress as one possible explanation for increased sick leaves at municipal workplaces. "The population grows more irritable at a time when municipal finances are tight, and numbers of employees decline", he says.
"But it is incorrect to think that the job is the only reason. It is possible that people do not take care of their health", Vahtera says.
In the study of ten municipalities, sick leaves increased considerably in all employee groups, except among higher-ranking managerial personnel.
Biological factors have also been put forward as an explanation for greater illness rates among women. However, Jussi Vahtera does not believe such theories. "Women teachers are ill more than male teachers of the same age, even if absenteeism due to pregnancy is excluded."
Vahtera feels that women fall ill more than men because in addition to their day jobs, they take on more responsibility for their homes than men do.
He added that women are perhaps also more sensitive to noticing their own symptoms and more ready to seek medical attention.
Vahtera also does not believe that the male office workers who do not take as many sick leaves as their female colleagues are necessarily any healthier. "Perhaps they are more willing to come to work sick than others", he suspects.
While the Institute of Occupational Health focuses its absenteeism studies on municipal employees, there are no equivalent studies on the population as a whole.
KELA keeps statistics on those sick leaves for which it pays compensation, if the sick leave lasts more than ten days. According to KELA’s data, sick days have increased somewhat in proportion to the number of people employed, and the numbers are slightly higher for women than for men.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 7.4.2006 - TODAY |
 Finns taking more sick leave from work than before
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