Epidemic of being off work for a rest? (8)

I believe the answer is:

outbreak

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'epidemic' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'of being off work for a rest?' is the wordplay.
'of' becomes 'o'.
'being off work for' becomes 'ut' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a rest?' becomes 'break' (rest is a kind of break).
'o'+'ut'+'break'='OUTBREAK'

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(Other definitions for outbreak that I've seen before include "disturbance" , "Sudden start" , "Eruption of e.g. disease" , "rash" , "Sudden occurrence (of war, disease, etc.)" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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