Clearly, We Must Act

The gap between sick days taken by workers in the public and private sectors has widened to a record level, a survey by the CBI and insurers Axa says today.

Although the total number of days lost to sickness in 2007 fell slightly last year, the absences still cost the economy £13.2bn in lost output. Workers took an average of 6.7 days off sick each during 2007, down from seven days the year before.

But the split between public and private widened further, with the average public-sector worker taking nine days off compared with 5.8 days in the private sector. The survey said that the private sector improved its performance last year but the public sector stood still.

We simply cannot go on in this manner any longer. We must, indeed, act to remove this gross injustice.

Average wages are higher in the public sector, working hours are shorter, pension arrangements are more generous and there are few who would argue that the intrinsic stresses of the jobs are greater than those in the private sector.

And yet sickness rates are higher in the public than the private sector. It really cannot be people pulling a sickie, as we've got the head of the TUC to tell us that it ain't so:

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "This survey shows that sickness absence in the UK has fallen once again and is now at one of its lowest levels in recent years. The figures smash the myth that Britain is a nation of shirkers, with workers always on the lookout for an excuse to 'pull a sickie'. In fact the reverse is true and many people still struggle into work when they are far too ill to do so."

There is thus, given that we've dealt with wages, pensions and the rest, only one possible cause: working in the public sector is injurious to your health. We must therefore cut, and cut ruthlessly, the number we force to do so and enable them to take up jobs which won't either kill or sickien them in the more caring and sharing private sector.

No, no, it's nothing to do with saving the taxpayer money, it's not clearing out the dead wood, nothing like that at all as a motivation. It is purely and simply for the benefit of the workers themselves.

For who would be so cruel as to insist that people should put their health at risk in order to be outreach workers? Real Nappy Officers? No, society will simply have to struggle on without such services.

For the sake of the workers, you understand.