Absences

Absences consist of the time during which a person is not at their place of work although they should normally be (illness, accident, maternity leave, military or civilian service, civil protection, reduction of working hours, labour dispute, personal and family reasons and bad weather). Holidays, public holidays and absences due to flexitime are not considered absences.

In 2023, absences due to health (illness or accident) represented the greatest volume of employees’ annual absences, followed by absences due to "other reasons" (this includes absences due to labour dispute, personal or family reasons and bad weather) and those due to maternity leave.

The absence rate due to health of full-time employees, i.e. the annual hours of absences due to health as a percentage of annual working hours as per contract, varies depending on the economic sector: in 2023, the activities with the lowest rates were: information and communication (2.6%), arts, entertainment, private households and other (2.6%) and financial and insurance activities (2.7%). The highest rates were found in agriculture and forestry (5.1%) and real estate and administrative activities (4.1%).

With the exception of “farmers and foresters” the absence rate due to health of full-time employees is closely related to the level of qualifications for the occupation carried out: the lowest rate is seen among the most highly qualified occupations whereas the highest rate is seen among less highly qualified occupations.

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