Friday, May 11, 2018

Unfairness = More Sick Days

Treating workers with dignity, respect, and fairness is not only the right thing to do, it's vital for their health

It’s no surprise that workers who are unhappy at work are more likely to call in sick than their contented coworkers. The cause of workplace unhappiness ranges from low job control to harassment to lack of workplace community.

But a new study has found that another cause of unhappiness—and thus additional sick days—is organizational injustice, or simply put, unfairness at work. The study specifically focussed on interactional justice, or the treatment of employees by managers.

It found that sick days rise in workplaces where employees feel they receive inadequate or untruthful information from management, or feel disrespected and treated unfairly compared to other workers. The study also found that illness absences rise in workplaces where employees feel that their jobs are insecure.

“Organizations have significant control over both [perceived fairness at work and job security] and our results suggest that they may gain by investing or improving their policies and rules for fair treatment of their workforce and by improving job security,” says the study’s lead author, Dr. Constanze Leineweber, from the Stress Research Institute.

This latest study proves again that dignity, respect, and fairness—principles that CLAC seeks to uphold in workplaces—are vital for the health of individual workers and the entire workplace community. Unions can play an important role in ensuring that workplaces have clear guidelines and procedures so that workers receive fair treatment and have a means to appeal unfair treatment.

Sources: University of East Anglia, psychcentral.com

Unfairness = More Sick Days

You might be interested in