As expected, the announcement of a tightening of the rules for compensation for sick leave for public employees by the Minister of Public Service, Guillaume Kasbarian, on Sunday, October 27, was once again welcomed in the world of health, which mainly concerns more than 1.2 million people in the public hospital service. Of the “unfair measures”to “true provocation”, The CGT of Health and Social Action was moved, concerned about a “new flight of professionals”at a time when the hospital is struggling to recruit. Having been on the frontline of the Covid-19 epidemic and although the issue of hospitals’ unattractiveness has since emerged acutely, the signal sent may have been surprising.
In its search for savings, the Government is considering extending the waiting period from one to three days, that is, the period during which the agent does not receive compensation, as well as covering, after this period, 90% of his remuneration. , compared to 100% today. And this, to address “the gap” growing between the public and the private, Kasbarian defended.
According to the report of the inspectors general of finance and social affairs, made public in September, it is in the hospital public service where the duration of sick leave appears to be longest, in 2022, with a maximum of 18.1 days of absence per person on average during the year. With, among the elements of explanation, the end of the health crisis. Even before the Covid-19 epidemic, hospital absenteeism represented around ten days a year (between 2014 and 2019), compared to eight days in the private sector, they report.
Declining numbers
On the ground, although solid national indicators are not available, situations differ from one territory to another. The latest figures from the survey carried out by the French Federation of Hospitals, among 311 establishments representing 572,000 employees (that is, more than half of the public hospital service), although decreasing, are still higher than those before Covid. The rate of absenteeism due to sick leave of non-medical staff (nurses, caregivers, medical-technical, administrative staff, etc.) in health establishments and nursing homes has thus fallen to 9.5% in 2023, after reaching a maximum of 11.1%. in 2022. It rose to 8.9% in 2019.
In this survey, as in the data reported by the hospitals, the focus is on these personnel who represent the majority of the workforce, and not on the doctors, who are not part of the public hospital service and whose sick leave is still rare in number, often around 3%, we report in various establishments.
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