Absenteeism from work is costing businesses €1.5 billion a year, the employers' body, Irish Business and Employers' Confederation (IBEC), claimed yesterday.
It based the figure on a survey of 557 organisations, which found that workers are absent for an average of 7.8 days each a year.
Extrapolated to include all of those in employment, this represents a loss of 14 million working days a year, IBEC says. The main cause of short-term absence for both men and women was short-term illness, the survey found.
However, almost a quarter of the organisations surveyed said that many male absences were not due to genuine ill-health.
About 40 per cent of short-term absence occurs around the weekend, the survey found. The figures are included in an IBEC report, "Employee Absenteeism - a Guide to Managing Absence", published yesterday.
IBEC director Mr Brian Geoghegan said absence from work was a serious social and economic issue. "Whilst not all absence can be eliminated there is significant room for improvement where absence rates are high, or even at average levels."
The report, written by IBEC senior research executive Ms Anne Coughlan, says that in the majority of cases employees act responsibly in staying at home to recover from illness.
There has also been a shift away from viewing "absenteeism" solely as a pejorative term, it says. In the past, it had been associated mainly with the notion of "malingering" or pretending to be sick.
More than half of the companies surveyed did not consider they had a problem with absenteeism, but over 40 per cent said absence levels were a cause for concern.
Absenteeism increases with the size of the company and is highest in the manufacturing sector, the survey found.
The rates were highest among metals and machinery workers, at 4.89 per cent, followed by medical devices (4.65 per cent), printing and publishing (4.62 per cent), food, drink and tobacco (4.56 per cent) and electronics (4.49 per cent).
Long-term absence, lasting for 20 days or more, accounts for around 42 per cent of all absence days. Mr Geoghegan said the survey revealed that companies could no longer afford to tolerate such high levels of absence.
"Besides its obvious impact on particular workplaces, absence affects the wider economy through loss of potential output and the increased spend on social security."
About 12 per cent of those surveyed cited alcohol and alcohol-related illness as being a cause of short-term absence for males. The equivalent figure for females was 4 per cent.
There was a perception among respondents that some younger employees did not have the same work ethic as older colleagues and were not interested in their work.
IBEC said it was encouraging that 58 per cent of respondents thought it was possible to reduce their absence rate.