If work stoppages have increased by 30% in three years, this increase is explained by several factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic, or even psychological disorders.
Is France affected by an epidemic of sick leaves? Guest of BFMTV, Friday June 16, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, denounced a “explosion of short-term work stoppages: more than 30%”.
“It must be said: these are work stoppages that explode, especially on Monday and Friday”continued the president of Medef, criticizing “dwork stoppages of convenience”. Is he saying true or fake? Franceinfo has looked into the matter.
One in two French people was arrested at least once in 2022
In view of the official figures, the increase in sick leave is a reality. According to the Ministry of the Economy, there were 8.8 million in 2022, against 6.4 million ten years earlier, an increase of 37.5%. This trend has been confirmed over the last three years. According to the Technical Center for Provident Institutions (CTIP), which federates complementary health insurance, the number of work stoppages increased by 30% between 2019 and 2022. In addition, the benefits paid in this respect “increased by 12%”specifies the CTIP in a press release * published on June 15.
The insurer AXA, which has been analyzing national absenteeism for four years, draws a similar conclusion. According to its figures, the frequency of work stoppages jumped by 54% between 2019 and 2022. Absenteeism even reached a record level in 2022, according to its barometer published in May*: last year, 44% of employees stopped at least once a year, compared to 30% in 2019. Over this same period, the proportion of stoppages lasting four to seven days jumped, from 24.9% to 36, 7%.
The increase is real, but are the reasons justified? According to Yves Hérault, director of AXA Santé & Collectives, this surge can be explained by “the epidemic waves due in particular to Omicron”, variant of the particularly contagious Covid-19. But “these waves don’t explain everything”, he moderates in the report. He evokes a more marked increase among the youngest and executives “which, until then, usually stopped less”. Indeed, the absenteeism rate increased by more than 50% among those under 30 between 2019 and 2022, according to the document.
For Katell Clère, Awareness and Innovation Technical Director at AXA, “the main cause of long-term work stoppages remains psychological disorders, a subject that has been constantly increasing for more than three years.” Quoted in the barometer, she estimates that “Companies have an essential role to play in the prevention of psychological disorders.
According to another barometer*, carried out by the Ifop polling institute for the Malakoff-Humanis health mutual, 50% of employees were arrested at least once a year in 2022. Among the reasons, all durations combined , there “ordinary illness” topped the list (28%), up sharply. Covid-19 is in second place (17%), ahead of psychological disorders (15%) and musculoskeletal disorders (13%).
Post-Covid-19 mental and physical degradation
Questioned by AFP, Marie-Laure Dreyfuss, general delegate of the CTIP, was alarmed by an increase in work stoppages “structural” rather than “cyclical”. Indeed, if this increase could be explained during the pandemic, it is more difficult to understand it today. The General Delegate puts forward several hypotheses to explain these judgments: “psychiatric problems” as the “burnout”, or the “post-Covid depression”. It also notes a sharp increase in work stoppages for people under 45 “in certain sectors”. In addition to young people, it is women and managers who are increasingly concerned, specifies the CTIP.
Géraldine Mandefield, manager of the AXA Verbateam subsidiary, specializing in prevention and health, mentions in the insurer’s barometer “deterioration of mental and physical health” related to the pandemic. The Covid-19 crisis “has accelerated the sedentary lifestyle of employees which continues in particular with the trivialization of teleworking several times a week”.
On the other hand, none of the barometers consulted by franceinfo specifies whether the stops are taken on Monday or Friday, as Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux advances. It is therefore reductive on the part of the representative of French business leaders to suggest that this increase is linked to “convenience judgments”.
A work stoppage control program at the start of the school year
However, faced with this increase, the government is concerned about public finances. The Minister Delegate for Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, deplored “the explosion of sick leave” during a hearing in the Senate on June 14. Indeed, according to its National Fund *, the amount of daily allowances reimbursed by Medicare increased by 15.2% in 2022, to reach 15.7 billion euros. If this trend continues, “we will be at 23 billion euros per year in 2027”anticipates the minister.
In September 2022, he had already announced that he wanted to tackle work stoppages issued by teleconsultation by a practitioner other than the attending physician. A framework challenged three months later by the Constitutional Council. In his plan presented in May to fight against social fraud, Gabriel Attal provides “a national work stoppage control program” by Medicare from the start of the school year. Among the targeted certificates, “false stops on Monday (…) or Friday” implicated by the boss of Medef, as well as those “which are not accompanied by any prescription for care or medication”, he declared before the Senate, without however quantifying the share of these judgments of convenience.
In addition, thanks to its plan presented Monday to restore public finances, Bercy hopes to save 10 billion euros by 2027, including “several hundred million euros” just by tackling abuse on work stoppages. The hunt has already begun: the first warning letters were sent by Medicare to doctors prescribing more than the average.
In an interview at Parisian, Gabriel Attal mentioned “30 million euros in work stoppage fraud” under the previous five-year term. A relatively low figure compared to the 4.15 billion euros of Medicare fraud observed each year, according to estimates by the Court of Auditors.
* Links followed by an asterisk refer to PDF documents.