Getting sick or having an accident is inevitable, however, these specific events can prevent workers from carrying out their work in the company, having to be absent from his post until he fully recovers his health. Temporary disability is the “situation in which workers are temporarily prevented from working due to common or professional illness and accident, whether or not it is work”, as explained by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy.
This situation is the main reason for work absenteeism, whose rate rose to 5.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022one tenth above that of the previous quarter and two tenths more than in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to a study published this Monday by Adecco.
Absenteeism is the set of hours not worked for occasional reasons, which do not include losses due to ERTEs, nor due to vacations and holidays. However, although temporary disability is the most important reason in quantitative terms, it is not the only one, since hours not worked due to maternity and adoption, paid leave and labor disputes are also taken into account. Among all these factors, the absenteeism rate in Spain reached 6.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022very similar to that of the previous quarter and one tenth higher than that of the fourth quarter of 2021.
In this context, the hours not worked due to work absenteeism during the fourth quarter of 2022 are equivalent to 1,044,816 wage earners would not have gone to their job in said perioda figure 5.9% higher than that of the previous quarter and 4.4% above that of the same quarter of 2021.
Asturias, the community with the most absenteeism
Asturias is the autonomous community with the highest rate of absenteeism, 7.8%, followed by Aragon (7.4%). On the other hand, on the other side of the coin are the Valencian Community (6.2%) and Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha, both with 6.3%.
Regarding the sectors, the industry is the most affected by work absenteeism with a rate of 7.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022, followed by the services sector (6.8%) and construction (5.2%). Likewise, these three sectors also continue to be the most damaged in absenteeism due to temporary disability.
By sections of activity, lSocial services activities without accommodation present the highest rate of absenteeism, with 10.6%; and these are followed by health activities (10.5%) and assistance in residential establishments (10%). On the opposite side, the activities of cinematography, video and television programs, sound recording and music publishing are those with the lowest level of absenteeism (2.5%); as well as real estate activities (3.4%) and telecommunications (3.5%).
occupational accident rate
The occupational accident rate refers to the frequency with which accidents occur as a result of work, and At the end of the fourth quarter, the incidence rate (number of accidents at work per 100,000 inhabitants during a working day) stood at 225, which represents an increase of 1% year-on-year, as the Adecco report shows. The incidence rate of ‘in itinere’ claims (those that occur on the way from home to work and vice versa) was 36, 5% more than the interannual rate.
With regard to the severity of accidents during the workday, 99.2% of them are minor (135,830 accidents), while commuting they reach 98.6% (21,934 accidents). Instead, Although fatal accidents during work hours only represent 0.1%, these have increased by 14% in the last year (165 accidents). Young people are the ones who have a higher incidence in the working day, as well as commuting.
The incidence of accidents due to Covid was 7 per 100,000 people in the fourth quarter of 202247% less than in the third quarter but 15% more than in the last quarter of 2021.
The autonomies with the highest rate of incidence of occupational accidents are Cantabria, Asturias and the Balearic Islandswhile Construction, Industry and the agricultural sector are also the sectors most affected by the incidence of accidents.