Sick leave, due to temporary incapacity, costs the State some 7,000 million euros a year, if we add to this that many companies are hiring private detectives to unmask cases of fraud, it is clear that it is a very delicate and expensive issue. How did they do it in ancient Egypt?
We will focus, due to its control and detail, on the workers of the pyramids. First, I would like to clarify that the latest discoveries have made it clear that they were not slaves but that they were well fed, organized and, moreover, completely free. They were organized by groups of about 40 to 60 workers who could increase at specific times due to «needs of the service «, each led by a foreman and overseeing the work a scribe . In addition to supervising, he also had administrative tasks as he had to keep "the accounting papyri «. The progress of the work was recorded, the material that was needed and the one that was being used... and the absences of the workers with their corresponding reasons .
Among the causes that we could call justified were:
Embalming a loved one.
Scorpion stings.
Brewing beer for a celebration.
Drunkenness.
Being beaten up by his wife in a marital argument…
And although it seems surprising to us, he had more rest days than us... the Spanish:coronation or death of a pharaoh, their corresponding anniversaries, religious celebrations, floods of the Nile, the epagomenos (the five days added to the 360-day cycle to complete the 365-day Egyptian solar year)… and even from the time of Ramses III (1198 to 1166 BC) is the first record of massive union action… a strike . According to the papyrus preserved in the Egyptian Museum of Turin The strikes arose due to the delay in the food rations that were part of the workers' salaries.
The workers had not received sustenance for more than twenty days because the governor of eastern Thebes and his followers had intercepted the shipment. Four months later, the conflict was revived. The delivery of food had been delayed again, this time eighteen days, and the workers were forced to claim what was theirs, but received insufficient amounts. For this reason they interrupted the work and went to the temple of Thutmose III in Medinet Habu, where they presented their complaints, demanding that the pharaoh himself be informed and proclaiming:
(...) We have come to this place because of hunger and thirst, because of the lack of clothing, fish, vegetables. Write it to the Pharaoh, our good lord, and write it to the Vizier, our superior. Do it so we can live!”
Sources:Osirisnet, Libcom, The graffiti of pharaonic Egypt – Alexander J. Peden, Pharaoh’s People:Scenes from Life in Imperial Egypt – T.G.H. James, Learning from the past – José Manuel Pina