Sick leave in the Netherlands was at its highest level in the first quarter of this year since the first three months of 2007, mainly due to the flu epidemic. In the hospitality sector, sick leave is once again the lowest at 2.3 percent.
This was reported by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Sick leave varies by industry. It was highest in healthcare, at 6.5 percent. In particular, sick leave was high in nursing and care homes. There was also relatively high absenteeism in public administration and industry.
Sick leave in hospitality throughout 2017
Employees in the hospitality sector also stayed home the least due to illness throughout 2017, as research showed at the time. Then, sick leave in hospitality was at 2.2 percent, and the civil service had the highest sick leave. According to CBS, there is low sick leave in hospitality because there are relatively many young employees in the sector. Additionally, the hospitality industry has many on-call workers with zero-hour contracts. Since employers with such contracts do not always have to continue paying in case of illness, this has no effect on the absenteeism rate for the employer, even if the employee is ill. In hazardous professions such as firefighting, police, and defence, there is relatively more absenteeism. Furthermore, in healthcare, there is often physically demanding work, which also leads to higher absenteeism.