The Chamber supports the amendment, which allows a long-term sick employee to work part-time during the sick leave

The Ministry of Social Affairs came up with a bill to amend the Health Insurance Act, according to which, upon signing an agreement with the employer, after being on sick leave for two months, the employee can work during the sick leave under working conditions adapted to the state of employees’ health. The Chamber supports this change, but we made one proposal to the Ministry to make the rules for working during sick leave more flexible for both the employee and the employer.   

The right to work during sick leave
According to the bill, the employee and the employer have the right to agree on temporarily performing work corresponding to the state of health based on a sick leave, if more than 60 calendar days have passed since the day of the employee's release from the duties indicated on the sick leave. 

One of the conditions of such agreement is that the employee performs work corresponding to the employee's health condition. Based on a sick leave, when temporarily performing work corresponding to the state of health, the employer and the employee are obliged to comply with the working conditions corresponding to the state of health indicated on sick leave. Work that corresponds to the state of health can mean both part-time work, adapted working conditions/work environment and lighter work tasks. If the employer is not able to offer the employee working conditions corresponding to his/her health condition, the employee may not work during the sick leave. 

A person has the opportunity to work while on sick leave after 60 days from the start of the sick leave. In addition, the exemption from work duties must last at least 90 calendar days. Since working during sick leave is allowed after the 60th day on sick leave, this means that the sick leave should be valid for at least 30 days after that. 

According to the bill, the employer may not pay less than 50% of the salary agreed in the employment contract for working during sick leave. This means that the employee's salary must in any case be at least 50% of the previous salary. The health fund compensates the insured person for the remaining part, which can be a maximum of 50% compared to the previous salary.  

The Chamber proposed that the right to work should be established earlier
As previously explained, according to the bill, the possibility of working during sick leave arises after the 60th day of sick leave. The Chamber suggested that the employee would have the opportunity to start working earlier, i.e. after 30 days of sick leave. In this case, it is guaranteed that the employee will focus on restoring his/her health and work capacity for the first month, and after 30 days, the employee can start working under adjusted conditions based on the sick leave. In addition, such solution ensures that there is no long-term labour shortage among employers and that employees have the opportunity to maintain their salary and quality of life during a long-term illness. 

According to the bill, the changes will enter into force on April 1, 2024.

Learn more about the bill enabling working during sick leave HERE.