Which way does the causation run?

Thought this was interesting:

Staff who have worked at the Priory for more than five years are currently entitled to six months off sick on full pay. Employees who have been there less than five years get half pay for the same period.

The Priory wants to reduce this to no pay for the first three days with a maximum of six weeks full pay - half pay for those who have been with the company less than three years.

But staff say that the same terms are standard for the NHS and the public sector - and health workers have higher sickness levels because of the stressful nature of the job.

We know that the taking of sick leave is substantially higher in the public sector than the private.

The question we'd really like the answer to though is which way does the causation run? Is working in the public sector really more stressful? Or does the greater availability and more generous terms of sick leave encourage more taking of it?

Me, cynic that I am, would argue for the latter: incentives do, after all, matter.

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