France may encourage 'sick' employees to work from home in anti-absenteeism drive

France is mulling tackling a rising tide of workers taking sick leave by encouraging them to work from home when ill.

Sick leave costs France’s social security system up to €10 billion a year, with the average private sector employee taking 17 days per year in 2017. With sick days rising, due in part to the older average retirement age, the number of days has since hit 18.

"It’s as if our country had introduced an extra day off,” Edouard Philippe, the French prime minister, said recently.

A new report handed to the Elysée on Wednesday outlines 20 proposals to bring down that figure, chief among them recognising "teleworking" (télétravail) as an official alternative to the regular system of sick leave.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/21/france-may-encourage-sick-employees-work-home-anti-absenteeism/

What the fuck is the French social security system doing paying for workers' sick days ?  Any "Sick leave" should be part of the workers' employment contracts with their bosses (my last job had zero "sick days" --  when you were off sick, you simply weren't paid..).

And --  what proportion of French workers could 'work from home', anyway  ?     (I reckon over here, you would be lucky if even 10% of workers could do so..).

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

What the fuck is the French social security system doing paying for workers' sick days ?  Any "Sick leave" should be part of the workers' employment contracts with their bosses (my last job had zero "sick days"  --  when you were off sick, you simply weren't paid..).

And --  what proportion of French workers could 'work from home', anyway  ?     (I reckon over here, you would be lucky if even 10% of workers could do so..).

In the UK you get statutory sick pay after you've been off work for three days, assuming that your company doesn't do sick pay.

If you’re too sick to go to work then you’re too sick to work from home. Am I missing something?

That’s just fucking stupid.

Furthermore, it reminds me of people that post on Facebook “I’ve got the flu”

No, you haven’t. If you had the flu you’d be too ill to post on Facebook.
Go to work you stupid cunt.

eddie wrote:If you’re too sick to go to work then you’re too sick to work from home. Am I missing something?

That’s just fucking stupid.

Yes, you are missing something. You've never heard of people throwing sickies because they don't want to go to work?

Raggamuffin wrote:

eddie wrote:If you’re too sick to go to work then you’re too sick to work from home. Am I missing something?

That’s just fucking stupid.

Yes, you are missing something. You've never heard of people throwing sickies because they don't want to go to work?

What has that got to do with people who are sick?

You are placing them in the same cateogory

If you cannot attend work, due to being sick, then you are hardly able to work from home

As when people are sick, they require rest

I'm merely saying to eddie that some people do phone in sick when they're not, so they could in theory work at home. One way a company tries to stop people throwing sickies is by not paying them if they're off sick - it also saves them a lot of money. It doesn't work with some people though.

I'm not saying this scheme would work, for several reasons. If someone is throwing a sickie, they probably don't want to work at home either. Other jobs simply aren't suitable for home working - retail, restaurants, etc.

I often can work from home when 'sick' (i can't at this job but at previous it was allowed)

to be fair I'm more likely to take time off from injury then illness, If I've sprained my ankle the part I can't do it the driving to and from work. the sitting at a computer is fine, if they have the system setup so you can remotely connect there is no reason why I can't still get work done. Even when I was in Sydney.... you're a glutton for punishment if you fancy a hour on the train and 2km walk with injured legs.

Also If I'm working from home then I don't lose a sick day(or when contracting lose a days pay), it still counts as worked the day.