WORRYING RATE

THE high rate of absenteeism in Barbados is definitely a cause for concern.

 

This was one of the views expressed by Chairman of the Productivity Council, Dr. Akhentoolove Corbin, who was responding to a question posed by one of the members of the press regarding recent comments that were made by Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss. Inniss, who at the time was speaking on the Holidays with Pay Bill and the Labour Department (Amendment) Bill in the House of Assembly on Tuesday morning, stated that absenteeism plays a major role in low productivity in this country.

 

He said that rather than focusing on responding to the Minister’s comments, he was going by statistics, which show that there is an issue with absenteeism and what we need to do now is focus on the reasons why it is so high.

 

“Well, I won’t focus on Mr. Inniss’ comment. I would focus on what we know from the statistics that we have produced over the years that sickness absence is a problem in Barbados. In fact, across the world and we know for sure that in the tourism – it is a major issue in the tourism sector and so one of the things that I think that we need to do in this new year is to step up to determine why is it that sickness absence is so high.”

 

Dr. Corbin stated that while in some cases, there would be legitimate reasons why persons take sick leave, in others there are some per-sons who believe that they have to use up all of their 21 uncertificated days.

 

“Of course there are genuine cases for sickness absence and within the public sector we know that people have 21 uncertificated days. That is a right you have. So we need to find out what are the causes of this. 

 

“I know that in the past, it was purposely done and I think that again it could be a cultural misinterpretation of the public sector where some people may – not all – perceive I have 21 uncertificated days and some people take advantage of this where if you have taken ten to 15 sick days, some people think that I have to use up all of my uncertificated days and that is where you get sick the first day, the second day, if you go third day you would have to produce a certificate, so you could have a two-day and a one-day.”

 

He added that education would play a key role in combating this problem. “I think that more education and re-educating people to understand that the 21 days are really there if you are really sick and you can’t come to work, and it really is not a right that you take out your days.”