Sickness absence

The leave of absence granted because of illness, has been a public discussion in Norway during the last months, and will continue during 2010. Maybe also the many other European countries the debate is running.The international development from 1990 till today are shown in the figure above, and the figures from Norway (red curve) are the highest the last three years (during the Red/Green Government). Maybe the strong link between the Labor Party and the Union has something to do with that development.

Differences in sickness absence between men and women for major occupational groups in the 2 quarter of 2009, shows that women's absence is 48% higher than men's. The gap is somewhat larger in leading professions, academic and college occupations. For example, had women in academic professions a sickness absence of 5.3% against 2.4% among men.

I will not elaborate in this post about the background, too good welfare systems, people´s moral and other populistic argument that are focused upon between the different media and politicians, but if you want to learn more about this important issue, you will find an interesting report from a governmental working group here, Background IA avtale (in Norwegian).

Have an interesting Sunday indoor due to continuous heavy cold outside.