Is Phone in Sick Day the same as National Sickie Day?

No, they are separate observances on separate dates. National Sickie Day is a British day marked on the first Monday in February, while Phone in Sick Day is May 1.

Why is Phone in Sick Day on May 1?

RTMark moved it there in 2000 for its closeness to May Day, the international labour date. Until then it sat in early April, pinned to the opening of the British financial year.

Did Phone in Sick Day cause the British Airways sickout?

The campaign claimed credit for it, but the dates do not line up. The sickout happened in early July 1997, three months after that year's observance, during a balloted industrial dispute that the EU labour agency wrote up without mentioning any campaign.

Phone in Sick Day

Next celebratedSaturday, May 1, 2027

A protest against working while ill. In the Whitehall II study, 17 percent of unwell male British civil servants took no sick leave at all.

See how to celebrate

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Last updated August 19, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEMay 1

OBSERVED INInternationally

CATEGORYFun

SUBCATEGORYSilly

ORIGIN

Institutional Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY

Decadent Action

FIRST OBSERVED

1997

“Decadent Action called the first World Phone in Sick Day for 7 April 1997, and handed it to the American collective RTMark in 2000.

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A London stunt, relaunched by a counterfeit WTO.

The London collective Decadent Action called the first World Phone in Sick Day for 7 April 1997, timed to the start of the British financial year. In February 2000 the group handed the day to the American collective RTMark, which moved it to May 1 and, outside the United States and Canada, to May 2.

Read the 2000 press releasevia gatt.org.theyesmen.org

INTRO

2,000 British Airways staff went sick in the wrong month

Roughly 2,000 British Airways staff went sick at once, at least four times the airline's normal number. It was early July 1997, and the cabin crew were in the middle of an official strike. Phone in Sick Day has claimed that sickout as its founding proof ever since.

The campaign's first edition had been held on 7 April, three months earlier. The EU's own labour agency wrote up the dispute that August and mentioned no campaign, no holiday and no stunt. It said instead that it was "still not entirely clear" whether the sick-ins were even deliberate.

The gap is the point. Almost everything about this day is documented, down to the press release that moved it to May 1, and almost none of it supports the story the calendars tell. It also shares the date with International Workers' Day, a separate observance and a public holiday across much of the world.

ORIGINS

Phone in Sick Day history

INTRODUCTION

Decadent Action was not a union. It was a London art project that called itself a consumer terrorist organisation, and one of its own members later described the method as "a kind of capitalist ju-jitsu". The idea was to turn the strength of credit against the system rather than strike against it.

Channel 4 broadcast a documentary about the group, titled Gluttony. It ran for half an hour in October 1997. The same writer later called the whole thing an elaborate art project, and said some of the parts in the film were played by actors.

CHAPTER 01

A holiday pinned to the tax year

The first Phone in Sick Day fell on 7 April 1997. The group then settled it on 6 April, the first day of the British financial year. By the following spring Melody Maker was calling the observance "now in its second year".

CHAPTER 02

Aimed at a cold remedy

The 1998 edition came with named targets. In coverage the group kept in its own press archive, Red Pepper reported that it was going after workers at Reckitt and Coleman and PolyGram in particular. The first of those made Lemsip, and had run advertisements suggesting that someone else would grab your job if you became ill.

A spokesman calling himself Mr.H is quoted in that same archive saying the day was "direct action against capitalism". The argument of the whole campaign sits in one product. A cold remedy sold on the promise that a cold need not stop you working.

CHAPTER 03

Sold to a counterfeit WTO

In February 2000 Decadent Action handed the observance to the American collective RTMark. The announcement went out on 26 April, signed "WTO/GATT". It was published on gatt.org, the group's line for line spoof of the World Trade Organization's own website.

The real WTO had already noticed. In November 1999 it put out a statement calling the fake site "illegal and unfair". Wired covered the handover that week and reported that RTMark had "acquired" the holiday from Europe.

The new date was chosen for its closeness to May Day, which the Second International had designated in 1889 as a day in support of workers. Nobody runs the observance now. RTMark's own site files it under past projects, and Decadent Action's pages survive only in the Internet Archive.

TIMELINE

Timeline

A strike for the eight-hour day

A mass strike beginning on May 1 drew as many as 500,000 American workers, and led to the Haymarket Square confrontation in Chicago three days later.

The first Phone in Sick Day

The London collective Decadent Action called the inaugural edition for 7 April.

Ireland's Blue Flu

Some 5,000 gardai reported sick on 1 May in a pay dispute, a second mass sickout the campaign would later claim a hand in.

Australia gets an edition

The group recorded a first Australian Phone in Sick Day held on 7 May.

RTMark takes the day over

An American collective acquired the observance and shifted it to May 1, with May 2 for countries where May 1 was already a holiday.

British sick pay from day one

Statutory sick pay became payable from the first day of illness, and the earnings floor that excluded the lowest paid was removed.

BY THE NUMBERS

Phone in Sick Day by the Numbers

148.8M: Estimated UK days lost to sickness, 2025
30.4%: Share of UK absences, minor illness
80%: US private workers offered paid sick leave
£123.25: UK statutory sick pay, weekly maximum

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why Phone in Sick Day Matters

EVIDENCE

17% of unwell male civil servants took no sick leave at all.

Among unwell male British civil servants tracked by the Whitehall II study, 17% took no sick leave at all. Their incidence of serious coronary events ran at about twice the rate of unwell colleagues who took a moderate amount of time off, though a later systematic review reported no settled consensus on the wider health effects.

LAW

Britain rewrote its sick pay rules in 2026

Statutory sick pay became payable from day one of an illness on 6 April 2026, the start of the British tax year. The same act removed the earnings floor that had left the lowest paid employees with no statutory cover at all.

COUNTING

Two national figures, and they do not agree

The Office for National Statistics estimates British sickness absence at 4.4 days per worker, drawn from a household survey of individuals. The CIPD survey of 1,101 HR professionals reports 9.4 days per employee, which measures a different thing rather than correcting the first.

British Airways staff phoned in sick en masse, as did Irish police. Decadent Action got the blame. Or took the blame. You decide.

Iain AitchWriter, on Decadent Action

Whether you're a low-paid employee who's been forced to work while unwell, or a new parent who wants to be there for their family, these changes are for you.

Peter KyleUK Business Secretary

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe Phone in Sick Day

Read the press release that set the date

The document that moved the observance to May 1 is still online, signed by a trade body that did not write it. Read it in full and see how much of the modern story it actually supports.

TRACE

Trace one holiday claim back to its source

Pick any origin story a calendar site tells you and follow it to a document rather than to another calendar site. This day is a good practice run, because its paper trail survives and its claims do not always match it.

LOOK

Look at the sickness figures your country publishes

Most national statistics offices measure absence directly, and the numbers are usually duller and more interesting than the anecdotes. The UK release sets out days lost and the reasons given, with the agency's own caveats attached.

EXPLORE

Explore the 1990s web through the Internet Archive

Decadent Action's site is gone from the live internet and readable only in archived captures. It is a short lesson in how quickly a movement's own record disappears.

CORRECT

Correct the origin story when it comes up

The version that circulates gives the campaign credit for two mass sickouts it did not schedule. Both are independently dated, and saying so is more interesting than repeating the myth.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know Phone in Sick Day?

1 / 8

Which group called the first Phone in Sick Day?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing found in any country, so it is a normal working day. May 1 is a public holiday in many places, but that is International Workers' Day, a different observance.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

18sources

13primary records

15independently dated

Primary records

The Yes Men2000-04-26

2000 Phone In Sick Day press release

The announcement that moved the day to May 1, signed by a fake WTO.