More sick leave after work-from-home advice was lifted

Absenteeism due to illness increased from 4.2 percent to 4.6 percent in the period between when the Cabinet lifted the work-from-home advice at the end of September and reimplemented it last week. That is the largest increase since the outbreak of the coronavirus and the highest level in the pandemic, Financieele Dagblad reported based on figures from two large health and safety service providers.

FD spoke to ArboNed and HumanCapitalCare, which have approximately 1 million workers under their care. According to them, the increase in sick leave is higher than usual in this period.

"In October, an average of 50,000 more employees were sick on a working day than in September," Jurriaan Penders of HumanCapitalCare said to the newspaper. The trend was visible in all sectors. "With the exception of last year, we see a slight peak every year in this season. Now it is exceptionally high. This is mainly due to the increase in flu and cold symptoms and the national increase in coronavirus infections." Last year there was no flu epidemic. The measures taken to stop the spread of the coronavirus also prevented the spread of the flu.

The workplace is also increasingly mentioned as the possible source of coronavirus infection, Penders said to FD. "Since the abandonment of the work from home advice, we have seen more than a doubling, from 10 percent at the end of September to 25 percent at the beginning of November. At the same time, we see that the share of infections in the private sphere actually decreased in this period."