Abstract
Absenteeism is a disruptive activity that can negatively affect a company’s productivity, revenue and costs. This behaviour can be defined as an employee’s habit of being absent from work. Absenteeism is classified into two categories, namely, authorised and unauthorised absence. Authorised absenteeism occurs when an employee misses work with justified reasons, such as injury or sickness. It may occur when an employee requests time away from work in advance or impulsively. Employers may approve this to avoid a negative impact on the attendance record of the employee. Unauthorised absenteeism refers to instances where the employee misses work and fails to give a reasonable justification for the absence. In 2010, the mining industry recorded the highest absenteeism rate due to the harsh conditions in underground mines and the strict health and safety regulations which apply to mining employees. Lonmin (2012) recorded a high rate of absenteeism due to strike action (35%), illness (17%) and unapproved absenteeism (2.48%). Sibanye-Stillwater (2017) reported that productivity was impacted by absenteeism, including mine accident sick leave, medical sick leave, occupational health, unpaid leave, absence without consent, training and annual leave. A rate of 15.1% of days lost owing to absenteeism was reported in 2016, even though this was down from 17.2% in 2013, 16.4% and 15.4% in 2014 and 2015 respectively. Organisations are well aware of the costs associated with absenteeism, therefore it is essential to determine the root cause of this phenomenon and establish strategies to reduce the rate of absenteeism in the workplace. This research study is a platinum mine case study conducted using mixed methods such as qualitative and quantitative approaches. Two questionnaires were designed: (1) quantitative questionnaire and (2) qualitative questionnaire. The respondents of this study for the quantitative questionnaire were production employees while respondents for the qualitative questionnaire included supervisors, human resource officers and accountants. The respondents were selected using simple random and accidental sampling methods. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data and present it as frequency tables, graphs and means. This study finds that winch operators were more absent than other employees meanwhile, winch operators earned a lower salary compared to rock drill operators. There is a general perception amongst employees that an insufficient crew at the sections resulted in unplanned overtime and working longer hours to compensate for the time lost by absentees, which further led to stress and conflict among other employees. Supervisors did not implement strict discipline on absentees, with 80% of “absences without permission” (AWOPS) not being addressed. Absenteeism resulted in decreased productivity at the mine. It emerged that working conditions were the major issue that the mine should address in order to manage absenteeism. This was deduced from the suggestions by most of the respondents...
M.Tech. (Extraction Metallurgy)