The latest report from the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (DREES) on long-term sick leave shows that these have penalizing effects on professional careers. According to figures from the DREES, among people who have experienced sick leave for more than a month, 15.1% of women and 11.4% of men are unemployed or inactive the following year. And these percentages are even higher than the stops are long: they respectively increase to 18.9% and 14.2% for employees whose sick leave has exceeded two months.
These figures contrast with those of employees who have not taken sick leave: in this case, only 7.1% of women and 4.4% of men have a degraded professional trajectory. Finally, it should be noted that employees who have had work stoppages of less than 30 days have trajectories comparable to those who have not.
Increased risk in women
The DREES study was carried out on a sample of 250,000 private sector employees aged 25 to 55 followed between 2005 and 2008.
It also shows that more women than men are unemployed and inactive (18.9% versus 14.2% for absences lasting more than 60 days the previous year) after a long sick leave duration. A difference attributed to a lesser integration of women into the labor market (more frequent reduced activity, lower wages and qualifications).
Finally, the authors of the study note that people who return to work after a period of inactivity or unemployment have less frequent recourse to sick leave. The conditions of compensation may have something to do with it, since it is necessary to justify a minimum contribution period to benefit from the daily allowances paid by the Health Insurance. But this result seems to support the hypothesis of a link between job insecurity and less recourse to work stoppages.
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