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From Anselm Waldermann The Germans will sign up increasingly rare sick. Trade unionists lead to the fear of a possible Jobverlust. Economic researchers warn against panic before: You have voted for the declining health status other explanations.
Hamburg - In 2006 the employees were missing on average 7.2 working days - that is 3.29 percent of the planned working time. A report of "Die Welt" today confirmed the Federal Ministry of Health. A ministry spokesman said although the value could not yet be determined precisely, the tendency to agree with it however. This is the number of sick leave the seventh consecutive year decline in West German country even reached its lowest level since the introduction of wage payments in 1970.
DPA
sick leave: a statistical link between absenteeism and labour market situation, there are not Often states that the fear of a possible loss of the job was a reason for the decline. According to reports each worker is not ill, this is the view of his health situation really should do.
a proof of this relationship, however, there is not. "I have no such studies," says the labour market expert of the Munich Ifo Institute, Martin Werding, Newspaper ONLINE. The concern about the workplace might be an explanation, as well it might be natural but also the structural change in the world of work: "More and more people are sitting in the office, and fewer and fewer people are hard physical work," says Werding. "Because it makes sense when fewer and fewer people reported sick." Finally, a cold for a construction worker, "depending on the weather kills", to the office, however, could deal with triefender nose is still dragging.
drastic yet formulated it Jochen Pimpertz, arbeitgebernahen Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft (IW) in Cologne. "There is no statistical link between health status and labour market situation," he says. It points out that the health status has been declining for decades - regardless of the ups and downs on the labour market. "The theory of the workers, blue, is not to keep," says Pimpertz. "On the contrary: The identification of employees with their job is usually quite high."
at the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) sees things differently. "The low number of missed shows that the less people are sick, but that they increasingly go to work sick," said DGB board member Annelie Buntenbach. Was particularly alarming that the number of work-mental illness increased by one third.
to a similar conclusion, the Scientific Institute of the AOK health insurance before about three years. In a representative survey gave three-quarters of the employees that they are in sick leave for fear of a possible Jobverlust "highly reticent." A third of respondents said that ever against the advice of doctors went to work to be fifth took recovery even vacation days. Pimpertz health researchers, however, has doubts about the significance of such studies. "In return, should the respondents admit that they are in good economic times increasingly ill report. But does not." The scientist has a different explanation for the declining health status: The increasing number of companies investing in prevention and safety. "This corresponds to the measurable decrease in accidents at work," says Pimpertz. The same applies to accidents on the way to work happen: Their number was also declining.
Furthermore, there is still a very simple explanation for the good health of the German workers: "The workers are getting younger," says Pimpertz. This leads - along with the trend towards fitness and wellness - to ever lower downtime.
TheseWhat really true, it is difficult to prove. Even Pimpertz acknowledges that there is no sufficient data. Even international studies hardly bring light into the darkness - for eight years, there has been at European level no meaningful statistics. Due to the different incentive systems in different countries but they would not comparable in any case, experts warn.
Werding, Ifo Institute now hopes to clarity of the pickup in economic activity. "It's like a test," says the expert. "If the sick leave despite the upturn in the labour market continue to fall, then it would be proof that the two things unrelated." with Reuters