The popular view that public sector workers take more sick leave than their private sector counterparts is misleading says an HSE report. The results of a recent HSE survey suggest that there is evidence of higher rates of employer under-recording of employee absence within the private sector, this being concentrated within smaller businesses.
The Survey on Workplace Absence, Sickness and (ill) Health (SWASH) 2005 also indicates that differences in public and private sector sickness absence rates are small, an average of approximately 0.3 days per employee, when account is taken of the size of an organisation; and differences in the age and gender profiles.
The survey, based on 10,000 interviews with employees, confirmed that levels of absence were higher in organisations with more than 250 employees. Almost all public sector organisations employ more than 250 employees. The majority of private sector employees work in small or medium sized organisations.
The average number of days absence per employee in small private businesses is 4 days, compared with 7 days in large (250+) private sector organisations.
On average, women have more sickness absence than men and the public sector employs a higher proportion of female workers.
Older employees take more days sickness absence in total than their younger counterparts. However, young people have more spells of short-term absence than older employees. The age profile of the public sector is older than the private sector.
The survey also found that public sector workers are more likely to work when they are ill than those in the private sector.
Reports of work related stress are more prevalent amongst people who work face to face with the public. Stress was reported more widely amongst public than private sector respondents. More public sector workers work face to face with the public than their private sector counterparts.
There appear to be notable differences in sick pay arrangements between the private and public sectors, with over one-fifth of private sector respondents reporting that they received no pay for the first three days of continuous absence.

• HSE survey