Restraint shown!

The Mail has shown a remarkable amount of restraint in its coverage of today's absence rates released by the ONS.

Despite the evidence being there for the shouting it barely mentioned the fact that public sector workers take, on average, more time off work due to sickness than private sector workers.

If only the same could have been said for the Daily Telegraph.

The 0.8% difference in absence rate is enough to drive many retired Brigadiers into fits of rage. Those days of absence are costing them tax pennies. If there was less sickies maybe we could afford a lovely little top rate tax cut perhaps they could pay the extra to get their gold plated blunderbuss polished by a pretty little Thai boy.

The story misses the point that if you look at the figures broken down by occupations it's the jobs that have to deal directly with members of the public, and are the lowest paid, that have are off ill the most. Care assistants, education assistants, customer care assistants, nursing assistants all paid a pittance and have to deal with the baying masses, is there any wonder they don't fancy work when they've got a cold? These are also the type of low paid jobs that tend to be full time employees in the public sector and casual workers in the private sector. If you're a casual worker and your unwell its a choice between getting paid and getting better. Therefore they're much more likely to drag themselves into the care home for a shift.

So maybe there's a lesson here - treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen.

Excellent.

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