In Belgium, the short-term sick leave has increased to the highest record in the first three months of 2022. It has been amounted to 3.6 percent of all of the working days, as per the analysis by the HR services company Acerta.
Short-term leave has been defined as when the employees are absent for a day, a few days or up to a month. Between January to march, it was over half the amount that had been reported in the first quarter of 2019, before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moreover, the record is not a surprise, and the figures also showed an upward trend in 2021.
As per Acerta, the rise the greatest among the young individuals has been observed as a 78.7 percent increase in the three months of 2019 for employees under the age of 20, as well as a 61.3 percent increase among 20 to 24-year-olds.
Along with this, the young individuals will remain sick proportionally more minor than the older workers as well as the employees in the care sector are over average briefly ill, that is 4.1 percent of all workable days.
Acerta expert Ellen Van Grunderbeek has highlighted that at the time of the first quarter, the rules and regulation of mask has been relaxed.
In addition, Van Grunderbee mentioned in the statement that “It will be the case that especially young people have picked up their social life. They probably also have more contacts, direct and indirect, for example, through their children.”
Furthermore, “Moreover, the percentage of people in these age categories who have had a flu shot is lower than among the older population.”
