CANCER AND WORK:
A MAJOR SOCIETAL ISSUE
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A major societal issue
In France, 1,200 people learn every day that they have cancer: 400 of them work.
Because therapeutic treatments are progressing, because the average survival rate of patients is improving, because working life is getting longer, more and more people are affected by cancer in the workplace.
For the employee, cancer is often synonymous with isolation and a break in his or her career path.
For the company, cancer is synonymous with difficulties in risk management, tense relations, and an increased cost of absenteeism.
For both, cancer is too often synonymous with the destruction of value. This societal issue has been recognized as a priority by the 2014-2019 French Cancer Plan.
Within the framework of the new 2021-2031 French Cancer Plan strategy, maintaining employment for people with cancer remains one of the priorities.
Beyond cancer pathology, it is the global issue of the integration of chronic diseases that is being raised today.
Indeed, in France, 15% of the working population are chronically ill and 15% of the working population are close or multiple caregivers. The disease has already entered the company's doors; it is now a matter of managing it better and integrating it into our organizations.
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A corporate strategy issue
Cancer and chronic diseases are no longer just a health issue, but a societal issue that affects our daily lives as well as our professional lives. The disease has a multidimensional and systemic scope.
It impacts all dimensions of the company: human, economic, organizational, image. New challenges are therefore imposed on the company, which must adapt to new social and societal paradigms. It must provide itself with the means to better integrate cancer and chronic disease situations into its HR policies and managerial practices, but also innovate to build the practices of tomorrow. In order to obtain tangible results quickly, it is therefore important to anchor this subject in company strategies with clear commitments and concrete actions in favor of keeping people affected by the disease in their jobs.
It is time to learn to work with cancer and chronic illness
In Europe, the cost of cancer was found to be 126 billion euros. In France, at 97 euros per citizen. 60% of the economic burden relates to non-health expenditure: lost working days due to sick leave or work incapacity, hours of care provided to the sick by relatives, or even lost productivity attributed to premature death.
Source: The Lancet – University of Oxford - October 2013
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