Until recently Arthur and John worked as service engineers in a business that supplied deep cleaning equipment to the catering industry to service the company’s equipment on customers’ premises. Because of growing public concern about hygiene in industrial kitchens, the company is expanding rapidly and demand for equipment servicing is increasing even more rapidly because the equipment, once installed, is rarely properly maintained. By agreement with their employer, Arthur and John have set up a separate company offering a regular maintenance service for the range of equipment from their erstwhile employer, as well as that of rival suppliers, with the additional option of an annual deep clean of the entire kitchen. Some of their previous colleagues have joined them as engineers and other people have been employed to do some of the deep clean work. The new company is very successful, but the product offered has two attendance/absence problems: the work often exposes its employees to infection risk because of what they have to clean; and the hours are erratic because the customer needs to keep its business running. A work shift could be 12–14 hours, with a lot of weekends.

Question 

Arthur and John are finding that absence is increasing. They would like some advice on what to do. What do you suggest?