Attendance bonus an unacceptable policy

A trend prevalent in some industries here of incentivising workers to take less medical and urgent leave is disquieting. This newspaper discovered that the practice is especially common in the logistics, transport, pest control, retail, cleaning, security, manufacturing, and food and beverage sectors, where work is labour-intensive. This is an unacceptable policy. Even machines need downtime and maintenance - and employees are certainly not mechanical bodies undeserving of rest, and particularly when they are unwell.

It is well and good to incentivise employees through bonuses or the expectation of promotions when they perform especially well at work. Financial incentives, which are meant to encourage staff to perform well in their jobs, are an efficient means of separating the better performers from others. However, while employees should also be expected and encouraged to look after their health as a part of their contribution to the company's performance, it does not follow that those who fall ill should be penalised - and worse, that they should be incentivised to not take medical leave and to work through their illness instead. Such practices by management are morally wrong and cannot be condoned. Bosses who adopt such positions should ask themselves if they will apply the same principle to themselves when they are too ill to work.