Private investigators find 30% of sick notes invalid as workers pay genuine doctors for time off and police abuse leave after bail.
Picture: iStock
High‑profile figures accused of faking illness to avoid appearing before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry have reignited debate over invalid sick notes and their impact on employers.
Labour experts warn absenteeism linked to false medical certificates costs South Africa’s economy billions each year.
Fake sick notes cost economy R19 billion annually
According to Unu Health, an online health platform, absenteeism is estimated to cost the economy about R19 billion annually.
Labour experts say fake sick notes play a major role in situations where employees lie about being sick in order to skip work.
They say absenteeism costs businesses billions of rands each year.
Labour expert Andrew Levy said it is a criminal offence to submit a sick note that you know is fake.
Levy said that kind of crime was happening every day throughout South Africa.
Criminal offence to submit fake note
“It’s a problem. And the abuse of sick leave costs the economy billions.
“And there’s no business in the country where the employer doesn’t suffer,” he said.
“If you go to see a doctor when you’re not really sick, and that doctor wants to earn his fee, they will give you the sick note.
“Unfortunately, an employer can do nothing about that. It’s genuine and comes from the doctor.”
He said the country was also experiencing a situation where bogus doctors issue illegal sick notes without examining patients, simply because there are not enough doctors.
Same notes from the same doctor
Levy said in one of the cases he handled, there was an incident where an employer hired a private investigator after it transpired that most of his employees usually obtained sick notes from the same doctor.
“When he arrived at the alleged doctor’s surgery, he found two ladies sitting behind a table with plastic chairs without any medical stuff,” he said.
“They did not examine him; instead, they just asked him how many days he wanted. When he said five, they requested R120 and gave him a medical certificate.”
He claimed there are many such practices are in Germiston and surrounding areas.
He said this was prevalent in the police service, because when cops realised suspects were released on bail, they would try to take leave and ended up taking sick leave by presenting fake sick notes.
5% of 100 workers faked sicknesses daily – study
“I did a study some years ago and found that absenteeism was about 5% out of 100 workers who faked sicknesses daily. This is not only a South African thing, it is also worldwide,” he said.
Another labour lawyer, Michael Bagraim, who is the DA spokesperson of employment and labour, said he comes across invalid sick notes daily.
He said often those sick notes were on stolen medical pads.
“Sometimes, we find that employees actually pay genuine doctors to give them illegitimate sick notes,” said Bagraim.
“I have been through at least a dozen arbitrations where it turned out that the sick notes came from proper medical practitioners who are put under pressure by their patients to give them time off for other purposes.”
Bogus doctors
But he said many employees receive fake sick notes from bogus doctors.
“Sometimes, even clinics get sick notes written out by the administrative staff on behalf of the doctors. These notes are also in‑ valid,” said Bagraim.
“The economy is losing a lot more than we can imagine be‑ cause literally thousands of people take time off every day with‑ out being sick.
“It is often very difficult to verify sick notes as the doctors are not available telephonically and many will not respond.”
He said he had clients who went to a lot of trouble by hiring private investigators to follow up on sick notes and it transpired that almost 30% of the sick notes were invalid.
