Many small business are actually being put out of business by this. Employees, mostly because of legislation, see themselves as above the law and therefore do as they please. This puts employers in the SMME market under greater pressure and causes margins to 'disappear' as employees struggle with juggling all the duties that need to be attended to whilst at the same time trying to deal with errant employees. Costs for Labour Attorneys, labour consultants and time spent performing Disciplinary hearings for staff, who are so out of line that they should be summarily dismissed without a second thought, have become yet another expense for the SMME, and all of this whilst trying to grow the economy for the country.
It's about time that the Government, the Department of Labour and the CCMA started seeing the SMME market for what it is - their survival and in so doing make things a little easier than what they currently are.
In my opinion, legislation and the infernal Red Tape that we all have to go through (and get beaten up in the form of fines and penalties etc, if we don't comply) all adds to the huge number of Businesses that go broke in the first two years and certainly contribute to the number of Businesses that go broke in the next three.
Employees cannot see and in most cases don't give a damn about what they do to their employers. For them, it makes no difference until they are left without a job and no-where to go - then suddenly it becomes the employers fault that everything went belly up - at no point do they take any of the responsibility and/or accountability for their part in the equation.
Perhaps it is time for people to start standing up and being counted for their part!
And for the most part, to those of us in the SMME market, stop being 'pushover' bosses, trying to do what's best for staff who have no appreciation for what you are sacrificing for them to have a decend job and decent working conditions - I say - treat them exactly the way the they treat you!
02 May 2007 at 11h00
Absenteeism from the workplace, including that stemming from unofficial long weekends, is costing the country billions every year. Studies conducted by Corporate Absenteeism Management Solutions (CAM Solutions), an insurance company which takes risk for sick absenteeism, showed that absenteeism costs the economy about R12-billion annually.
CAM Solutions said abnormally high sick absenteeism has a large impact on the profitability of an employer. It said this was not only felt in the direct cost (unproductive earnings for the employee when on sick leave) but also through indirect costs.
Albert Schuitmaker of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry said absenteeism from the unofficial five-day long weekend is most likely to affect Cape Town's manufacturing and construction industries. He said it was difficult to say how much the long weekend and rate of absenteeism had cost the economy. He said it would affect the textile and construction industries the most as workers from these sectors did not work on Tuesday and on Monday."A lot of people took scheduled leave and companies positioned a plan for a reduced staff complement, so that is the positive part," he said. He said the long weekend would cause a reduction in productivity and that companies would be saddled with increased employee costs such as "double" pay.
Zolile Feni, CEO of Aza Civils, confirmed that the construction industry did not work on Monday and that this did have a negative impact on productivity and profits. He said the reason the construction industry took the day off on Monday was because many workers had requested a day's leave to visit family in other provinces. But Aziza Kannemeyer of the SA Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (Sactwu) said that taking the day off yesterday would not affect the textile industry. She said textile industry employees who had not worked on Monday had done so by arrangement with employers and had previously worked in the hours according to the ordinary rate of payment. This was so that the industry would not experience decreased production.
CAM Solutions said the typical indirect costs (to employers) of sick absenteeism were normal and overtime pay for replacement workers, reduced production volumes (or service levels), reduced quality (including staff morale and motivation), training costs, and increases in medical aid and life insurance costs. Their research also showed that Tuesday was the most unproductive day of the week as sick leave incidents commencing on a Monday seldom lasted for only one day, on average lasting for between two to three days, thereby including a Tuesday and sometimes a Wednesday. Because a Tuesday is the second highest initial day of illness, the cumulative effect is that a Tuesday is the most unproductive day of the week. CAM Solutions said about 40% to 50% of all sick leave incidents start on a Monday. The next highest day is Tuesday at almost 20%.Only 12 percent of illness incidents start on Friday.
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