Swedes may have a reputation of enjoying the odd sick day from work but, according to a rehabilitation science expert, this is unwarranted.
Mid-Sweden University professor of rehabilitation John Selander insists that reports of high sick leave numbers are misleading, claiming that Swedes do not deserve this reputation.
The Swedish government has aimed to tighten up the regulations regarding sickness benefit since it developed into a topic of debate eight years ago. An earned income tax credit was introduced to ensure that tax paid on income from work was less than that paid on income from benefits as a measure to solve the problems.
And Selander claimed that these measures have been successful, despite the media stating otherwise. He argued that certain measures used for showing the situation in a negative way gave the general public a “distorted view”, noting that a recent study indicated that nine in 10 people said they didn’t take a single sick day in 2013.
The professor explained that the sickness ratio data that is often published by the Social Insurance Agency (Forsakringskassan) was negatively affected by the small number of long-term sickness cases.
However, he noted that in other countries they based the ratio on those who were on short-term sickness leave, which he said was a more accurate way of presenting the figures. He added that Sweden was on a similar level to other developed countries.
In 2013, around 558,000 workers in Sweden to sick days, which equates to about 10 per cent of the country’s workforce.