http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/se ... y-sickness

Knowing the British, it'd be milked for all it could, to the point where nobody would ever work.

Divorced from the real world?

It has been standard practice here for years. If you are ill before your leave starts, you can cancel the leave and re-book it once you are no longer sick.

Injuring yourself whilst on holiday or a dicky belly through holiday food doesn't generally entitle you to reclaim the holiday leave.

Ah, the malingerers' charter.

I have, over the past four or five years, fallen ill several times whilst taking annual leave. I haven't got the brass neck to try and claim back a few days, just because I had the misfortune to get sick when not at work.

Still, bring it on, employment will benefit as companies are forced to hire more staff to cover the extra time off.

This is for people who are sick BEFORE they go on leave. If they are certified sick, they can cancel and rebook their leave. I don't see how that is a bad thing.

IIRC, the rest of Europe has a lower proportion of patients per GP, meaning your GPs probably have smaller waiting times. Here in the UK, in some places people can't get an appointment within two weeks (this is more due to the system used by the practices), usually though it's about two days. Which means if everyone who is 'sick' with cold or flu would then take up more appointment slots to get notes from their doctor.

Furthermore, what about those who would milk the system? People not really sick, or with minor sniffles?

Here you need to provide your employers with a sickness certificate by the second day of illness. For a lot of employers, you need to provide them with a doctor's certificate to prove you went for an appointment.

My last employer wasn't too bad. As long as you phoned in and let them know, you could post the certificate in on the second day - or bring it in at the beginning of the next week, if you were only off for a couple of days / 1 week.

Is this required for simple illnesses such as colds, flu, viral gastroenteritis etc?

In the UK, people can self-certify for the first seven days. After that, they are required to produce a sicknote. This reduces the amount of workload a GP would have to do.

I'd rather it be the case that people be refused from entering work with a cold or flu because they've decided they'll "just work through it, stiff upper lip and all that".

There's nothing admirable about bringing germs into the workplace and making me ill as well. Tossers.

Yep, even the morning after the night before needs a note from the doctor, if you are going to stay at home.

That would just not work in the UK. Not enough doctors for all these things.

It cuts down on people "taking a sicky"... No doctor's certificate, no sick pay.

No doubt as in many EU countries they pay more tax to fund more positions. Take the French, they even have 24 hour GPs that travel around Paris in Smart cars going out to the houses of anyone who calls them.

It's also harder to see GPs here because there are countless numptees who waste all of our time by not turning up to appointments and so that slot is lost to the ether.

One of the practices I worked at had a system where the morning slots were bookable ones for routine stuff and the afternoon ones you could drop in or book on the day. Seemed to work well.