I also believe that the reason sickness is so high is because its just so damn easy to call in sick. You pick up the phone knowing that you are going to simply just speak to a voice of someone who doesnt know you and give your payroll number. No questions asked. Then hey presto back to your next trip when you feel ready.
Now back in the day when anyone was tempted to skive (and lets face it we have all done it) we had our rosters wiped for 2 weeks and if we called in fit before the 2 weeks then we went on stand by. Why dont we just bring this back? It would give the company extra standbys each month plus I dont think sickness would be half as bad if people realised that by not going to Mumbai on a friday night, they wouldnt be going to SFO either the following week!
Excellent idea. Certainly something needs to be done, because as sure as eggs is eggs, the whole problem of crew down would be solved by sorting out healthy-workers-going-sick (I was avoiding using the word 'skivers' deliberately). And if it doesn't fix it, then crew are better off because crew down payments go up.
There are parts of my job I hate, but calling in sick to avoid them isn't an option.