60% 'have no Olympics leave policy'

Nearly two-thirds of UK employers have not confirmed plans for holiday leave for staff who want to go the London Olympics.

It could lead to understaffing and lost productivity, and could hit the UK economy hard, according to a survey by recruitment consultants Badenoch & Clark.

The survey of 1,000 office workers found that 60% of UK employers have not announced an agreed holiday leave policy.

Organisations are facing increasing pressure to ensure they provide an official leave policy to workers who have tickets, or risk the potential of growing absenteeism over the 2012 Games, it was claimed.

Of the companies which have announced a policy, 10.4% said it would be on a first-come first-served basis, while 6.9% said that annual leave would not be allowed on certain key event dates.

At 77.4%, employers in Scotland are the furthest behind in their leave policy planning, according to employees, whereas employers in the East are the most organised, with less than half (48.5%) of employees still in the dark about London 2012 absence plans.

Badenoch & Clark's managing director Nicola Linkleter said: "The 2012 Games seem to have come round too quickly for many businesses and with only 100 days to go employers need to seriously start considering their official leave policy.

"Given the immense interest the 2012 Games will create across the country and with many employees planning to attend key events, poor business planning could lead to employee discontent, confusion or empty offices.

"If it transpires that lots of people have booked off the same period of annual leave or choose to take a 'sickie' due to uncertainty over leave, offices could be seriously understaffed."