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Statutory Sick Pay and the Control of Sickness Absence*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Abstract

The shift from national insurance to employer administered, state funded Statutory Sick Pay has been discussed in terms of the privatisation of social security and its impact upon the living standards of sick-absent employees. This paper reports a survey of employers’ perceptions of the change. Many employers have seen the introduction of the scheme as an opportunity to extend control of sickness absence among workers. The new regime may be better understood as part of a process whereby the government and employers link together to manage labour in the interests of capital, rather than as the privatisation of one aspect of social security.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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