A ROW has erupted over the work ethic of Australians after Toyota president Max Yasuda claimed his company had a sick-day epidemic around long weekends. Toyota union representatives labelled the claims "nonsense", while Prime Minister Julia Gillard said there had always been workers who abused sick leave.
But research has found almost a third of businesses believe non-genuine sick days are on the rise, with Australian employees taking 9.4 days' sick leave a year on average.
Absenteeism is estimated to cost the economy $30 billion a year.
Workers in the health, banking, hospitality and government sectors are most likely to call in sick, each averaging more than 10 days per worker. Manufacturing workers had 8.5 days sick leave on average.
Absenteeism expert Paul Dundon, of Direct Health Solutions, said the power of unions in Australia contributed to the sick-day culture.
"High absenteeism makes workplaces unproductive, but unions have a lot of power and there's fear among business to do something about it," he said.
Ms Gillard yesterday admitted some Australians took unnecessary sick days. "I think we have just got to be a little bit sensible here - yes, there are times when people take sick days they shouldn't have," she said.
Mr Yasuda sparked outrage when he claimed in the Australian Financial Review that absenteeism was as high as 30 per cent at the company's Altona plant, particularly around long weekends.
But Paul Difelice, regional secretary for the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union vehicle division, said the only time sick leave hit that figure was last Friday - the day after Australia Day, giving absent workers a four-day weekend.
"They are ill-informed comments," Mr Difelice said. "Saying sick leave is a problem at Altona is nonsense."
The spike in sick leave last Friday came in the same week Toyota sacked 350 workers.
Ian Jones, federal secretary of the AMWU vehicle division, said he was "puzzled" by Mr Yasuda's comments and demanded a meeting with him to explain them.
heraldsun.com.au 3 Feb 2012
Another misrepresentation coming from the mouth of a so called 'leader', from a nation of slave labour.
The pressure is put on the Japanese workers that if you take your owed holiday period, you are seen as a non company person.
The company has one objective only, and that is to have high profits, at the expense of working conditions or company morale.
The sacking of workers is a move only to maximise profits.
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