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Absenteeism from work

There is no single definition for absenteeism. The company will have to define the concept of absenteeism that it will subsequently have to analyse and quantify. We can define absenteeism as the justified or non-justified absence of a person in their workplace in hours that correspond to a working day, within the legal working day.

This leads us to differentiate between various types of absenteeism.

Types of absenteeism

Justified absenteeism

Absence of the worker from work for a justified and proven cause.

Unjustified absenteeism

Absence of the worker from work without a justified cause or authorisation.

Motivational absenteeism

Worker attitude due to lack of motivation at work.

Causes of absenteeism

Institutional factors

Studies indicate that the more generous the coverage for sick leave and unemployment protection, the higher the number of sick leaves recorded. Structural absenteeism needs to be taken into account.

Labour-related factors

Studies document that factors related to working conditions, work-life balance, organisational culture, company size and the sector have an influence on the company's absenteeism.

Social factors

The absenteeism is a countercyclical phenomenon. Periods of economic crisis reduce absenteeism and periods of economic recovery increase absenteeism rates.

Factors relating to the individual

Studies establish a connection between absences and the demographic factors of the individual: age and sex. It is also necessary to take into account each individual's pain threshold.

Consequences of absenteeism

Temporary disability directly affects the health of working people and, in addition, can generate significant economic consequences for them. 

And it also affects direct and indirect costs for companies. Measuring both types of costs is essential, not only to understand their impact on productivity, but also to identify the real cost borne by the company. This allows us to determine the level of investment that the company would be willing to make to reduce these costs.

  • Social security contributions: During situations of temporary disability, the company is obliged, unless the contract is cancelled, to pay contributions up to a maximum of 545 days.
  • Salary: The company pays the cost of the day of the medical leave as wage in Work-Related Injuries or Occupational Diseases, as well as the day of the medical leave in the event of relapse. In non-work related injury or illness, the company pays the benefit for Temporary Disability from the 4th to the 15th day of sick leave at 60% of the benefits base.
  • Voluntary complements to the Temporary Disability benefit: Depending on the provisions of the applicable collective bargaining agreement or, failing that, of the individual agreement with the worker, the employer may have to pay the difference (or a percentage thereof) between the compensation that the worker should receive if he/she were not in a situation of temporary disability and the benefit to which he/she is entitled for this purpose. 

The benefit is paid through a delegated payment by the companies or through a direct payment by the managing or collaborating institutions of the Social Security Institute. Delegated payment is a form of compulsory collaboration with the Social Security Institute. Later, the company is refunded the amounts paid to its employees for this item, discounting them from the amount of the payments it has to make to deposit the Social Security contributions.

The amount of the benefit is different depending on whether the situation of temporary disability is due to occupational or common contingencies: (General Social Security Act. Legislative Royal Decree 8/2015, of 30 October, articles 169-171):

  • In Work-Related Injuries or Occupational Diseases: The Mutual Society or the National Social Security Institute pays the worker benefit of 75% of the benefits base starting on the day the medical leave begins until the worker returns to work. Decree 3158/1966 Article 2.

  • Substitution costs: On many occasions (especially in companies with few employees), the beneficiary must be substituted, with everything this involves in terms of costs of selection, basic training, remuneration and social contribution.
  • Opportunity costs: Although they may be considered difficult to measure, consideration must be given to the importance of costs caused indirectly by the employee's absence, as a result of his/her special relationship with clients or his/her knowledge or specific skills in production.
  • Late holiday payment costs: In accordance with current law (Royal Decree - Act 3/2012 final first provision), the agreed holiday period for employees coincides with a situation of temporary disability due to occupational or common contingencies (in both cases unrelated to pregnancy, birth or natural breastfeeding), once the situation of disability has finished, they will be entitled to have a new holiday period assigned to them, even when the calendar year in which they should have used their holiday leave is over, although limited to the 18 months following the year in which the temporary disability occurs.
  • Productivity costs: Work absenteeism is undoubtedly one of the most significant causes of the loss of productivity of companies, which leads to drops in competitiveness and, as a result, hinders their expansion and undermines performance, from the lower production of the substitute worker until the learning period is finished to the lower production of the worker on leave after he/she returns to work.
  • Overtime costs: The company sometimes needs to request its workers to perform overtime to maintain the production or the service or to conform to scheduling, which entails an extra cost.
  • Aggravation of the working atmosphere: Absenteeism at the organisation can generate a lack of motivation in the workers present and thus leads to more wage-related complaints, strikes, etc.

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