Postmen win cars for not pulling sickies

A SCHEME to reward postal workers with new cars and holiday vouchers in a drive to reduce sickness absence is to be repeated after attendance levels increased by more than 10%.

The Royal Mail said 37 workers won a new car, 75 won £2,000 worth of holiday vouchers and more than 90,000 won £150 worth of holiday vouchers. Daily attendance levels increased by almost 11% after the scheme was launched last August, figures showed today.

Sickness absence levels averaged 5.7% between August and January, compared to an average of 6.4% in the same period in the previous year. This represented an extra 1,000 people at work collecting, sorting and delivering mail.

Staff who did not taken any sick leave in a 12-month period were entered in a draw to win the prizes of cars and holiday vouchers.

It was so successful that a second, similar scheme has now been launched. The Royal Mail said it had also improved support for workers, including a new medical helpdesk and better access to health services.

Tony McCarthy of Royal Mail said: 'We must both support and reward postmen and women. They deserve it. They do a demanding job to a high standard, day in and day out, in all weathers.

'They have been the force behind the recent improvements in quality of service. The latest figures indicate that our performance over the busy Autumn period was the best in almost ten years, with 91.9% of first class letters delivered the working day after posting. This package of practical support and 'thank-yous' has made a big difference.'

The Royal Mail would not say how much the prizes cost in total, but said it was offset by the savings made by improvements in sick leave. Research for the CBI showed that workplace absence was on the increase and cost business £11.6bn each year.

CBI Deputy Director-General John Cridland said: 'Companies and organisations are increasingly looking for new and innovative ways of tackling the enormous cost of absence and Royal Mail appear to have made excellent progress.

'Firms fear that as many as 25m days are lost on a yearly basis through staff taking non-genuine sickness absence or 'pulling sickies'. That accounts for a worrying 15% of all absence at a cost of £1.75bn the UK economy.'

Last year, supermarket giant Tesco followed the example of rivals Sainsbury's and Asda by limiting the number of paid sick days employees could take.