An estimated 44 million workers nationwide do not receive pay when they take sick days off.

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He is determined not to take any sick days and will even be working on Christmas, sporting a Santa costume at a local residential home.

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Businesses with fewer than five employees would be eligible to take five unpaid sick days with job protection.

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Staff now take 12 days' sick each year on average - down from 22 days before the new rules were brought in, the firm says.

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HIV-infected workers who get no treatment typically take 55 days of sick leave in their final two years at work, says Sanlam in a newly finished survey of South African firms.

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Psychologists at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, who carried out the study, found that victims tended to take seven days off sick a year more than those who had not been bullied.

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"History shows that an awful lot of people will take those days whether they're sick or not, " Mr. Bloomberg said.

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He said that meant people no longer necessarily worked a strict five-day, Monday to Friday week, and they no longer saved all their socialising for the weekend - affecting the days people might take off as "sick leave".

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The advocates are pressing on, with policy proposals including expanding the FMLA to cover workers in small businesses, providing paid leave for working caregivers to care for an ill child, spouse, or parent or to take family members to routine medical appointments, and requiring employers to provide employees with a reasonable number of paid sick days to care for themselves or a family member.

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