Absenteeism is completely

Absenteeism is completely involuntary absenteeism or whole without medical justification is entirely voluntary, so that the classification as clearly marked on the theory, in practice includes a fairly significant overlap both categories.

Notably, as defined by ILO, Excluding holiday periods as absenteeism (because there are employees who "thought they were going to attend," but also strikes, normal pregnancy and prison. From our point of view, the three situations should be included in the measurement of absenteeism. Though the strike is a recognized right of workers in the legislation of a number of countries, the fact is that means no work for workers who thought they were going to go (or at least there were them when the activity is planned in the short or medium term) therefore implies economic loss to the organization. Indeed the strength of this measure lies in this fact. Regarding pregnancy, which would surely reflect ILO that pregnancy is not a disease. However, it implies a prolonged absence of the employee (in the legislation of our country covers a minimum of 90 days which can be extended at the request of the Social Security Bank in a variable period of weeks with special hours for breastfeeding). This requires reprogramming of tasks or a temporary replacement worker.

We believe that this issue is highly relevant, as it is estimated that the damage to the economy from this cause are certainly substantial. We say probably because you did not know recent measurements and overall absenteeism, conducted nationwide.

One study of Foundation European for Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, published in 1997, showing that in many countries Union European Only sickness absence can be a 2 to 3% of GDP.

Keep in mind that if, in our country, the figure was similar to that, that would be to export leather, rice and textiles.

In 2005 Uruguay's GDP was 18,600 billion and employed persons had 1:114.500 (source: National Statistics Institute). It follows that each person was $ 16,689 per year, 46.36 per day worked. The 2% of GDP amounts to $ 372 million. Considering that each worker produces 46.36 per day, this $ 372 million amount to 8:024.159. If we get the ratio between this figure and the number of workers, which throws us, with each worker had absented seven days in the year of its work, the levels of Uruguay would be located in the ranges outlined in the previous paragraph.

Moreover, the Social Security Bank paid in the year 2004, an amount of dollars in 155:665.662 insurance (approximately equivalent to almost 1% of GDP in that year) [2] and the Bank State Insurance paid approximately $ 18.5 million in revenue and $ 5.5 million for temporary compensation. The direct costs of medical claims and other expenses are estimated at $ 20 million per year [3] .

We think that both are a vivid expression of the magnitude of the problem.

Health conditions of the labor force in each country have a direct and immediate economic impact on the national and global economy. Total economic losses caused by diseases and injuries are substantial. These losses represent a heavy burden for economic development.(Hamoui and collaborators in January , citing International Labour Organization, 1999)

Given the absence of official statistics and the inability to develop them within the scope of this thesis, we decided to focus the study on a more qualitative. We carry out an extensive literature review and interviewed four experts, seeking to collect the national experience in the field and to conclude about which could be the appropriate measures to resolve the economic impact of this problem, looking further promote future studies, performed systematically, allow permanent monitoring of the magnitude.

The author concludes by making the following recommendations:

1. Continued absenteeism studies the effects of the evolution of such absenteeism and thus to estimate the real importance of the indicators calculated.

2. Planning and conducting studies to deepen as quantitative-qualitative about the characteristics and opinions of workers and of the conditions and working environment, aimed at developing strategies to improve them.

3. Planning for specific health programs aimed at the prevention of respiratory diseases and musculoskeletal mainly.

4. Coordination with other public and private institutions for similar studies and the organization of an information center on this subject which would be of great interest to institutions, researchers, workers, employers and / or those related to health and work.

For its part, Ms.Bayce [6] emphasizes the costs of absenteeism and suggests that they are composed of direct costs arising for the maintenance of social security contributions (plus the additional benefits that the company can pay the worker sick) and indirect costs arising from payments to the worker also must make the worker activity even in the absence of being in a situation of temporary incapacity. In the institution studied by Ms. Bayce and always citing his thesis, these payments are for old home constituted, premium power, extended hours, tenure, compensation insurance coverage and paid vacation.

The author also mentions that there is a third type of cost, which called hidden costs and derive, in their opinion, the time lost by the worker himself absent, the time necessary to provide that the absent worker's task is performed by another, the decline in performance of the team and the loss of production and market for late dearer service or product as well as the administrative costs of recruitment and training of substitute staff, increased overtime and others.

The population studied by Ms. Bayce was 65 persons, who missed a total of 1647 days, which is an average of more than 25 days per person in 2000 (in which the study was conducted).

It is necessary to emphasize some points:

• Both studies were conducted in public sector enterprises

• Both studies were conducted in institutions providing health services

• Both works were made several years ago

This means that, on the one hand, both studies have only internal validity and, moreover, that the absence of a follow-up, the results may not be representative of the current reality.

Absenteeism as a dependent variable

In the model of Robbins, Absenteeism is one of the dependent variables, along with productivity, turnover, and satisfaction citizenship.

According to Robbins, these dependent variables or output, resulting

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