The major reason for this growing phenomenon is said to be the absence of a religious and moral deterrence to prevent people from taking sick leave simply to stay away from their duty and escape from fulfilling their responsibilities. People’s only concern is to get their salary without any deduction at the end of the month. This situation results in the creation of several negative factors in the society, such as laziness, egotism, apathy to people’s needs, and spreading of corruption, according to a report in Al-Riyadh Arabic daily.
Speaking to the newspaper, a number of prominent figures stressed the need for carrying out an awareness campaign aimed at eradicating this phenomenon. Khaled Al-Shoraida, dean of the faculty for students’ affairs at Al-Qassim University, said that doing one’s duty shows his trustworthiness and fulfillment of his responsibility. The employee should be punctual and responsible to do everything that comes within the purview of his work, whether it is in a public or a private firm. “To stay away from the workplace on the pretext of illness involves some sort of betrayal. A question arises about the employee’s eligibility to receive salary for the days he or she has been away from work without any just reasons,” he said, while pointing out that people who have neither any willingness to work nor any proficiency in work also resort to this trickery of sick leave. “Some other people spend sleepless nights while in parties or in the company of friends and then produce a medical certificate to take time off from work,” he said.
According to Al-Shoraida, some employees resort to a forged medical leave. “Such people commit two offenses. One is staying away from the workplace without any justifications; the other is forging official documents,” he said, stressing such irresponsible employees should be dealt with firmly.
Ibrahim Al-Omar, dean of the economics and administration faculty at Al-Qassim University, said that taking a sick leave without genuine reasons had become a phenomenon and an administrative headache too. “This creates indiscipline as a byproduct of an unhealthy work environment featured by laziness and telling lies. This develops into spreading of bribery,” he said.
Al-Omar pointed out that it is possible to purchase a medical certificate from a private polyclinic or even a government clinic for the price of SR50 to SR100. This, he said, was a ploy not only used by lazy employees, but also by many boy and girl students of various schools and universities.
“As a step to curb such incidents,” Al-Omar said, “the university introduced a new regulation for taking sick leave. Under the system, any student who wants to stay home should produce a doctor’s prescription for medicines from a government hospital.” He said that the university had also put into practice some other experiments aimed at discouraging students from taking sick leaves. These included conducting fresh exams for students who managed to avoid sitting for an earlier exam by producing a medical certificate.
Al-Omar emphasized that the concerned authorities should carry out intensive media awareness programs aimed at discouraging the phenomenon, developing a culture of work efficiency and enabling employees to score excellent performance results.
“There should be intensive orientation courses and workshops targeting employees to develop among them an ideal job culture. Scientific studies should also be carried out to find effective ways to eradicate these cases and encourage employees to give a better output,” he said while adding that universities and research centers could play a vital role in organizing these programs in the best possible manner.
Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Hasani, assistant head of the court of summary jurisdiction in Buraidah, said those who secured a medical report to stay off from work without any genuine reasons were committing a sin. “If a doctor gives a sick leave for the wrong reason, he is also committing a sin. As for the employee, he is eating a salary that is haram (forbidden),” he said, adding that the case of a student who managed to secure a medical certificate to avoid sitting for an exam was similar. While warning doctors against issuing medical certificates for a false purpose, Sheikh Al-Hasani likened it with the warning of the Prophet (peace be upon him), who cursed those who pose as witnesses for falsehood.
