Sick leave without payment from the employer? Check out what the revolutions in L4 will be
The government is working on new regulations regarding the control of sick leave. However, in the matter of L4, the method of paying sick pay will also change. See what exactly these modifications are about.
Work is currently underway to change the regulations regarding sick leave. The Ministry of Family and Social Policy wants to introduce a revolution in the payment of sick pay, and only the Social Insurance Institution will be responsible for this. In this way, the current government plans to implement its election announcements about easing the financial burden on employers in this matter.
What will change in the payment of sick leave on L4?
One of the points of the coalition agreement is the payment of sick leave to the employee from the first days of being on sick leave by ZUS. According to the Ministry of Labor, “analysis of the financial consequences of the solution in various variants” is ongoing. Currently, sick pay is paid by the employer for the first 33 days, and later, i.e. from the 34th day, it is financed by the Social Insurance Institution (in the case of people over 50 years of age, it is the 15th day).
Due to the fact that the proposed changes are associated with an increase in the expenditure of the Social Insurance Fund, including the sickness fund, which currently remains a deficit fund, introducing changes in the above-mentioned scope also requires an analysis of the functioning of the provisions regulating the activity of medical certification in ZUS and control of the correctness of the use of sick leave – informed the Ministry of Labor in response to a question from “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna” on this issue.
Will the changes increase control over employees on sick leave?
Currently, both the number of inspections carried out by the Social Insurance Institution and the number of withdrawn or reduced benefits are increasing. As “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna” unofficially determined, the changes are intended, among other things, to expand regulations that would clearly indicate what rights the controller has, and therefore, for example, what information he or she may request from the controlled person. However, the same transparent rules will apply to her. As a consequence, both those controlling and the controlled should know their rights and obligations better. The aim of such new regulations is, among other things, to limit the abuse of sick leave, which, however, may also result in more sick leave being questioned.
“Description of rights and obligations is also important for the employee, who will gain certainty about his situation and know what he must agree to and which actions are unacceptable. Let us remember that we are talking about interference in his privacy,” explained Dr. Tomasz Lasocki from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw in an interview with “DGP”.
