Too few businesses have grasped the link between the sort of workplaces they have developed and the problem of absentee staff, according to chair of the Council of Civil Service Unions (CCSU) Mark Serwotka.

He added that a front page story last week (Monday 5 July) in the Daily Mail, about increasing sickness absence and a growth in stress-related problems, which claimed chancellor Gordon Brown was aiming to end the 'sicknote' culture, showed that the government was 'playing politics with this very important issue'.

The publication of the Mail piece coincided with the launch last week of Work, stress and health - a 'plain English' guide to the findings of the Whitehall II study of the health of civil servants.

Jointly published by the CCSU and the Cabinet Office, the guide brings together the many key conclusions of the study, which began in 1985 with a baseline survey of 10,308 civil servants in 20 departments in central London.

Twenty years after the original Whitehall study, the Whitehall II study - again carried out by a team from University College London, led by Prof Sir Michael Marmot - uncovered the same finding, that more senior people in the employment hierarchy can expect to live longer than those in lower employment grades.

Whitehall II showed that the lower the grade of employment, the less control there was over work. Those with intermediate or low job control had over twice the incidence of coronary heart disease as people with high job control. Chronic job insecurity had the worst effect on health, followed closely by any deterioration in job security. Continues��Public Health News, UK