To investigate the association between organizational climate and work commitment, and sickness absence in a general population of workers and consecutively selected employed sick-listed. METHODS: Questionnaire data used in this cross-sectional study consisted of two cohorts: (1) randomly selected individuals in a general working population cohort (2763) and (2) consecutively selected employed sick-listed cohort (3044) for more than 14 days over 2 months. RESULTS: Poor organizational climate was associated with increased odds of belonging to the employed sick-listed cohort among both women and men, while high work commitments were associated with increased odds only among women. The increased adjusted odds ratio for the combinations of poor organizational climate and high work commitment was 1.80 (confidence interval 1.36 to 2.37) among women and 2.74 (confidence interval 1.84 to 4.08) among men. CONCLUSIONS: These results support the magnitude of combining organizational climate and work commitment.