Background: Absenteeism caused by sick leaves generates an important economic burden.
Aim: To determine if job satisfaction, psychological climate, hierarchic level and age are predictors of absenteeism caused by sick leaves.
Material and methods: FOCUS-93 survey that measures organizational culture and the satisfaction scale of Warr, Cook and Wall were distributed to 1387 workers of a hospital and answered by 874. Absenteeism data was obtained from the justified absenteeism registry of the Chilean Health Services.
Results: Absenteeism is influenced by job satisfaction and organizational culture. Age has no influence. Hierarchic level has a negative influence on absenteeism among men and a negligible effect among women.
Conclusions: Those workers that are not satisfied with their work have higher rates of absenteeism.