(20:49:56) | While strikes hit the headlines, it is perhaps not generally realized that the major
(20:49:56) | cause of working days lost to industry is sickness. The difference between these two
(20:49:56) | factors which result in lost production is, of course, the strikes are much more
(20:49:56) | spectacular; and except in cases of massive outbreaks of disease of epidemic proportion,
(20:49:56) | the effects of sickness are not felt so dramatically, yet are much more widespread.
(20:49:56) | Safety legislation and the Factory Inspectorate have combined to keep down the
(20:49:56) | numbers of industrial accidents which may kill or maim helpless workers, yet it is the
(20:49:56) | apparently innocuous complaints such as the common cold which cause so many
(20:49:56) | absences from work. In addition, psychosomatic ailments such as “backache” also
(20:49:56) | contribute to lost production: there is no need for an unhappy worker to strike, he can
(20:49:56) | just take sick leave. Both strikes and sickness are ultimately protests—a contented
(20:49:56) | worker is a healthy worker. Yet all too often industrial relations officers and doctors are
(20:49:56) | concerned with symptoms rather than with tackling the root causes of the problem.