[Intervention against sick-leave in an industrial company]

We have studied the effect of an intervention programme to reduce absenteeism due to illness at a Norwegian industrial enterprise. The sample comprised 100 production line workers at a Norwegian electronic equipment manufacturing company. The measures included bringing the absenteeism to light (awareness raising), improving the working environment and supporting employees on sick leave. This type of absenteeism dropped from 11.7% in the year before the intervention to 8.4% during the year of intervention (p < 0.01), and was 8.7% the year after. Sick leave among the control group (about 210 production workers) was 8.5%, 10.0% and 9.7% for the three corresponding years. The study indicates that sick leave among the employees at an enterprise can be reduced through cooperation between the company health service, the management and the employees themselves.