Business split on mental health sickies

Mental health days off for workers, without a medical certificate, are worth considering, Business Council CEO Jennifer Westacott said.

Australia’s approach to mental health “isn’t working”, says Jennifer Westacott.

Mental health days off for workers, without providing a medical certificate, are worth considering, Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott said amid concerns Australia’s approach to mental health “isn’t working”.

Ms Westacott, whose organisation represents the country’s largest corporations, also called on all employers and mental health experts to sit down together and respond to the Productivity Commission draft report into mental health, which found the economic cost of mental illness was $180 billion a year.

In its 645-page draft report ­released last Thursday the commission asked for feedback on “personal care days for mental health”. “Would designating a number of days of existing personal leave as ‘personal care’ to enable employees to take time off without medical evidence to ­attend to their personal care and wellbeing improve workplace mental health and information on absenteeism due to mental ill-health? If so, what would be needed to make this provision effective?” the report states.

While Ms Westacott acknowledged employees needed to ­remain accountable to their bosses, she said the Productivity Commission was right to highlight the need for new and different ways of doing things.

“The current system isn’t working, we should be open to new ideas. With respect to medical certificates and leave we’ll need a balance to build mentally healthy workplaces while maintaining workplace accountability,” she said.

Other employers rejected the idea of specific mental health days, warning it would disadvantage Australians who needed to take personal leave for different reasons.

Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox noted that under the Fair Work Act Australians could already take 10 days of personal leave for an injury, to care for a relative or for sickness — be it physical or mental. He said the system must remain flexible.

“Allocating any days to a specific purpose would disadvantage employees who may need to take leave for another eligible purpose, eg, if they need to care for an ­injured relative,” Mr Willox said. “The current system is appropriate as a safety net. Of course ­employers can implement more generous arrangements in their workplaces if they so choose, but this needs to remain voluntary.”

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s deputy director of workplace relations, Tamsin Lawrence, said the law did not differentiate between personal injury or illness, including mental illness, and did not require employees to disclose why they had taken leave.

“Doing so should remain a personal choice,” she said.

The Productivity Commission’s landmark report to government marked the first time the social and economic impact of mental health has been examined beyond its clinical context and into much broader areas such as education, housing, justice and the workplace.

A former chair and current ­patron of Mental Health Australia, Ms Westacott said as a starting point employers should make sure people felt safe to divulge mental health issues and could be honest when they needed help.

“We need to make sure managers, particularly those in the middle, have the right skills and knowledge to assist people living with mental illness,” Ms Westacott said.