Assessing the effect of absenteeism in the Eastern Cape department of health.

Abstract

Many South African organizations are experiencing high absenteeism rates, which organizations can ill afford. As a result absenteeism continues to cost South African organizations and the government huge amounts of money every year despite numerous attempts by employers to reduce it. Dealing with absenteeism in the workplace requires tact and proper understanding of the underlying causes of absenteeism. Absenteeism can be defined as a specific employee’s unavailability for work. It is the term that generally refers to unauthorized/authorized scheduled employee absence from the workplace. Absenteeism in employment law is the state of not being present that occurs when an employee is absent or not present at work during normally scheduled work period. The Department of Health is a public entity and has the responsibility to provide quality health services to the community. The Government has introduced a service delivery mechanism which is enshrined in the White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service in 1997, through the Batho Pele Principles which is to guide the Department of Health on the needs and goals of the citizens of the Eastern Cape Province that the Department of Health should be serving. In any organization all employees are provided with various benefits such as vacation, maternity, paternity, compassionate and sick leave in accordance with the organizational policy which is sanctioned by legislation such as the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997. Sick leave, through legitimately sanctioned, has how ever been open to some abuse. All organizations has contingency plans to facilitate the continuous provision of efficient service delivery where staff shortage occur, resulting from the sanctioned absenteeism. The public service has also been characterized by high levels of absenteeism. Schultz, Nel, Gerber, Hassbroek, Van Dyk and Werner 50 (2001:582) define absenteeism as withdrawal of levels of productivity and collegial interaction for a given time to escape a perceived undesirable working environment. This behavior is disruptive to continuous organizational efficiency. Absenteeism is found in two forms that are avoidable and unavoidable. In the unavoidable form of absenteeism, the situation is unplanned and are governed by external factors, thus it is beyond one’s control and has to be managed differently. Control of absenteeism can be excised by the immediate manager through the human resource section regarding the duration and terms of absence pertaining to salary and terms of services. This study will focus on the effect that absenteeism can have on the implementation and maintenance of a client – centered service delivery culture, as portrayed by the Batho Pele Principles in the Eastern Cape Department of Health. The Eastern Cape Department of Health is suppose to be rendering essential service to the communities and therefore, it needs to be committed and self-sacrificing public service and provide high quality service to the Eastern Cape society.