Employees crying sick after Anzac Day to cost Aussie Business at least $36 million

The NSW Business Chamber predicts that about 173,000 Australians will pull a "well-known and obvious scam" by taking this Friday off after the Anzac Day holiday. 

Australia celebrates Anzac Day on Thursday April 25th

"It's amazing how many people get 'sick' on a Friday after a public holiday so they can create a long weekend," CEO Stephen Cartwright said in a statement on Friday. His advice to employees who want some extra time off is to plan ahead and talk to their supervisor or manager about booking annual leave*.


In dealing with unplanned absence, it is important for organisations to establish an absenteeism policy and make all employees aware of its content. A company can also gain significant insight into their operation by examining their workforce’s attendance and absenteeism information. 

If the business is small in size they may be able to track employee absenteeism manually. For larger companies this may not be an option, therefore they need to ensure that they implement a time and attendance tracking system that can: 

• Keep an accurate count of individual employee absences 
• Tabulate all employee absenteeism totals 
• Calculate the financial impact that these absences have on the business 
• Detect patterns where absences are particularly high 
• Differentiate between various types of absences 

The Mitrefinch Time and Attendance system can report on an unlimited number of absence codes. Each code represents a type of absence such as annual leave, personal day, sick certified, sick uncertified and bereavement, amongst others.

In addition, managers can keep a check on the percentage of absenteeism by employee, site, location, department and company on a whole, and then determine if an employee is above or below a plant or department average of absenteeism – and take appropriate action. 

The Mitrefinch Time and Attendance system includes a host of other features to assist with absence management and holiday planning including Leave Slots and Self Service tools. 

Leave Slots enable you to limit the number of staff that can book leave on a particular day, ensuring you have the right staffing levels to meet customer or production demands. Web-based Self Service tools make it easy for employees to view their leave balances and book time off, while supervisors can quickly approve or deny requests. 

Continue to our website to find out more information about automated time and attendance systems and absence management. 

*Read the full article on news.com.au