Workers ‘throwing sickies’ are costing Scottish businesses £26 million a year.
Nationwide research by PwC found that workers took unnecessary days off for a variety of reasons including family responsibilities, hangovers, boredom, good weather and to attend interviews for new posts.
The report found a third of employees in Scotland had skived off work in the last year at a collective cost of more than £26m.
Absenteeism as a whole was estimated to cost the UK economy £23 billion, £9bn of which was attributable to non legitimate absences.
Erika Campbell, human resources director, PwC in Scotland said: “This should be a wake-up call for businesses, especially start-ups and SMEs where absence can be particularly crippling.
“Employers need to use both carrot and stick. If it’s very easy to call in sick, or you don’t even need to call at all, then people are more likely to abuse the system.
“But if there’s more of a process to follow, people are more likely to think twice about taking time off.”
She added: “Having a flexible working culture can also go a long way to breaking the cycle of people feeling that they are entitled to days off outside of their holiday allowance and encouraging better employee engagement.
“The change in law that means anyone now has the right to request flexible working should help more people achieve the work/life balance they need without impacting on organisations’ productivity.”