seeking when they are absent from work through sickness, but this privilege has been extended to domestic workers in hospitals and similar institutions as a result or the findings of the Hetherington Committee; it is a common-place for long—service employees of municipalities and other public corporations; it is embodied in agreements with trade unions made by individual firms up and down the country. In certain industries which may be regarded as "sheltered" it is a regular feature of all employment; conspicuously successful (competitive and monopolistic) employers, such as Lever Brothers and Imperial Chemical Industries, have found it possible to accord very generous sick leave terms to almost all their workers; and even in parts of the industrial field in which paid sick leave is unknown as a contractual condition of service; it is increasingly common for employers to make concessionary payments to long—service employees when they fall sick.