Brussels police officers spent 175,000 days sick at home last year

Brussels police officers were absent for 173,521 days in 2024 due to illness, not counting accidents at work and maternity leave, new figures reveal.

This corresponds to an absenteeism rate of 7.51% in Brussels’ six police zones – slightly higher than for 2023 (7.18%) and above the average for Brussels civil servants (6.71% in 2023).

When occupational accidents and illnesses linked to pregnancy are also included, the figure rises to 11.39%, compared to 10.35% the year before, according to figures from the Police Counci.

Just as for 2023, the most sick days were recorded in the Brussels Capital-Ixelles police zone, which also has by far the largest police force. In 2024, it was 64,003 days, higher than the 61,876 days noted in 2023.

In the Brussels-North police zone - which covers Schaerbeek, Evere and Saint-Josse - the number of sick days rose from 27,742 to 30,867. There were also increases in the Marlow police division (Uccle, Watermael-Boitsfort and Auderghem) and Montgomery (Etterbeek, Woluwe-Saint-Lambert and Woluwe-Saint-Pierre).

In total, the six police zones had 6,706 staff members last year, which corresponds to an average of about 26 sick days taken by each employee. However, this result says little about what happens in practice. Figures can be distorted by police working part-time or by the number of long-term sick employees.

It is also difficult to compare absenteeism accurately between the six zones, the Police Council said. The number of days worked per employee is not known everywhere, so the proportions remain unclear. Nevertheless, the figures available show for example that the Montgomery and North zones have relatively high levels of absenteeism in 2024 related to 2023, compared to other zones.

The police are aiming to bring these rates down in a number of ways. “We are working on our human resources policy to improve our approach to sick leave,” said Audrey Dereymaeker, spokesperson for the Brussels-North police zone.

“Sick colleagues are contacted more regularly; we are more proactive in suggesting that they can also contact our team of psychologists and a disability manager has been recruited to make returning after a long sick leave easier.”

But she also highlighted the increasing cases of aggression towards police officers in her zone, which can lead to accidents at work. Between January and May 2024, 89 cases were reported, compared to 66 in the same period for 2023 – an increase of 35%.

The rate of staff turnover for 2024 is also significant – in the intervention services, an average of 17.5%. This does not necessarily mean that officers are leaving the zone, but often that they are transferring internally to other services, such as judicial work or criminal investigation. Across all the police zones, the staff turnover rate was 7.39%.

Shortly after the Police Council, a study by business support company SD Worx, revealed that 10% of employees admits to sometimes not going to work for no reason. Some 660 employers and 1,000 employees took part in the research.

Most businesses support reducing the number of days of absence employees can take without needing to provide a medical certificate.

Currently, in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with more than 50 employees, an employee can be absent for one day three times a year without having to produce a medical certificate. The federal government is working on a draft law to limit that amount to two days from 1 January 2026.