Sickness benefits and absenteeism- A comparative study of Sweden and Great Britain

Sammanfattning: Sweden has one of Europe's highest sickness absence rates and Great Britain one of the lowest. The Swedish sickness absence has fluctuated very much over the last decades, while the British rate is fairly stable. The thesis aims to cover the major aspects in society that can affect the sickness absence. The factors are divided into three groups&semic institutional, labour market related and structural. Through statistics and researches, the impact each factor has is discussed and examined. The emphasis is on the legal systems for obtaining benefits and the shape of employment protection in the countries. Possible effects of making alterations to the system are analysed, partly through glancing at the historical development of the absence rates. Some of the key factors to the differences are the higher number of females and elderly in employment in Sweden and the normative structures of the labour markets.