Enot announcing want “put an end to sickness absence”, on June 19, on the occasion of the Public Finances Conference, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, forgot that the increase in work stoppages was, in reality, an inevitable phenomenon. It is first of all the consequence of the increase in the employment rate and the increase in the retirement age. This observation is not new.
Already, in 2019, a report by three experts commissioned by the Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, pointed to this phenomenon. “The greater the number of workers, the greater the number of people likely to be off work. Conversely, the rise in the unemployment rate has an amplifying effect on the fall in the number of daily allowances (IJ) of short duration”could we read in the document.
Likewise, ” the aging of the population is a key factor since the duration of work stoppages increases with age”. According to the National Health Insurance Fund, quoted in this report, “people aged 50 and over represent 1.45 million beneficiaries, but 3.1 billion euros of the amounts compensated, due to an average duration of sick leave which increases with age”.
Explosion of psychosocial risks (RPS) in companies
Hunting down abuse by sanctioning prescribing physicians therefore risks being as effective as cautery on a wooden leg. Wouldn’t it be wiser to prevent the risk of professional disintegration by promoting sustainable work throughout the professional career and to facilitate the earliest possible return to employment of employees on prolonged leave?
Very often, the intensification of work, keeping the workforce as tight as possible, time constraints and deadlines lead to the reintegration of employees who have not yet fully recovered. However, in many professional sectors, we are still a long way from being able to adjust work situations so that the disease and the treatments that accompany it do not prohibit the pursuit of a professional career or fulfillment and efficiency at work.
Facilitating the reintegration of an employee after a long absence is an important issue for both the person and the company; this would necessarily lead to an improvement in working conditions and organization for the benefit of everyone, sick and able-bodied. Another cause of the increase in work stoppages, which has obviously escaped the government, is the explosion of psychosocial risks (RPS) in companies as in the three public services.
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