Gezondheid van Finse, Nederlandse en Duitse werknemers is relatief zwak (en)

Germans and Finns take the most days off work for "sickness" than any other Europeans, according to a scientific study.

The "Third European Survey on Working Conditions" published recently in "Occupational and Environmental Medicine" magazine tracked absenteeism in the old EU-15 in 2000.

The report shows that 24 percent of Finns took at least one day off work due to health reasons. The Finns were closely followed by the Dutch and the Germans (20.3 percent and 18.3 percent respectively).

At the other end of the scale, only six percent of Greek workers "pulled a sickie" over the year and only 8.3 percent of Irish.

Southern European countries tend to take fewer days off than in Northern Europe, according to the survey.

And men were much more likely to take days off than women.

The survey included a random and representative sample of employees in each country, eventually including 21,703 employees across Europe.