What benefits is a worker entitled to if they become long-term sick and how long does the employer have to keep their job? Can he be required to work at least part of the time when he is home sick? The answers to these questions can be found in the following lines.
If you fall ill and your doctor decides you are temporarily unable to work, you cannot work and you receive wage replacement for the first 14 days, but this is much lower than your normal wage. This is often seen as a tool against simulators. Supposedly, many people have already thought carefully about whether they would rather resist the temptation to stay at home for even the slightest ‘rhyme’. In practice, however, this can also lead to people contracting serious illnesses and spreading diseases throughout the work team.
The calculation of sick pay for the first 14 days is specific. At this point, you are not yet receiving sick pay, but wage replacement from your employer. The compensation you receive is based on the hours you would normally work if you were not on sick leave. This includes everything, including normal working days, public holidays and shifts you were scheduled to work.
You are not entitled towage compensation only during periods of sickness absence. Find out in which situations and how you can claim wage compensation.
The total amount depends on your gross hourly wage. This is calculated by dividing your gross pay by the number of hours you actually worked in the previous quarter.
This means that if you are on sick leave in April, your gross pay is based on the hours worked in the first quarter, January to March.
The value you get is then further reduced. The number of reductions depends on the amount of your hourly wage and the reduction limit is determined by the average wage for the year, this year it is 43.967 CZK.
Specifically, there are three reduction thresholds:
The final amount you receive is then 60% of your reduced gross hourly wage. Let’s illustrate this with an example in which Mrs Jana fell ill in October and was off work for a total of 5 working days. How does she find out how much she gets for this time?
Previously, you were not entitled to sick pay or wage replacement for the first 3 days. However, this rule was abolished in 2019 and you are now entitled to wage replacement from the first day of sickness.
In addition to the above, your employer may grant you more favourable treatment. For example, you can introduce so-called sick days, where the employee can go home to lie down without any reduction in pay.
The flip side of the same coin, however, is that your employer can check that you are at home during the first two weeks when you are receiving wage compensation from them, when you are not allowed to go out by your doctor. If you are not at home, your employer can make a file of this fact and send it to you, your treating doctor and the district social security administration.
Read our article on what you need to know about employer termination.
Your employer does not have to check you personally, but may have designated persons to carry out the checks. Employees should be informed of who is carrying out these checks. In addition, this person must provide you with proof of authorisation to carry out the check.
If your employer has been to check on you but, for example, has not heard from you or you missed the visit, this does not necessarily mean that you have breached the walk out procedures. In fact, it is up to your treating doctor to decide whether you have in fact breached the curfew based on the file sent to him by your employer. So, for example, if it says that no one answered the door when the bell rang, the doctor may justify this by saying that you are prescribed strong analgesics that put you to sleep. However, if you grossly breached your temporary disability regime, for example by doing other work, you could face up to dismissal.
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From the 15th day of sickness, you are no longer entitled to wage replacement from your employer, but you will receive sickness benefits from the state. Even in this case, the amount of the benefit is unlikely to please anyone, as even at this stage, moaning is less profitable than working.
Sick pay is calculated in a similar way to wage replacement. Specifically, it is 60% of the assessment base (the average of the previous year’s gross wages per day), which is again reduced by up to three reduction thresholds:
From the 31st day of incapacity for work, sick pay increases to 66% of the assessment base. From the 61st day of incapacity for work, it is further increased to 72 % of the assessment base. The good news is that in the event of long-term sickness, you will be entitled to these benefits until the 380th day of temporary incapacity for work. After that, it will be considered whether your ability to work has declined to the extent that you are entitled to an invalidity pension.
You can also use the sick pay calculator on the MLSA website to calculate your sick pay.
Sick pay is paid within 30 days of the request being made to the employer or the eSick note being issued. It is therefore paid retrospectively for the previous month in the same way as a normal employer payment. You can expect it most likely between the 8th and 17th of the month.
Your sick pay will be paid into the account you receive your wages in. If you do not have an account, your sick pay will be sent to you by bank transfer (postal order).
Read also how it is with probationary illness.
If you don’t get sick pay, you need to contact your employer to find out if they have sent your claim to the relevant district social security office.
If everything is in order on his/her side, then you have no choice but to call the Social Security Office directly. If you have trouble getting through, you can use the simple form available on the Czech Social Security Administration website.
When you return from sick leave, your employer must put you in the same job you had before you fell ill. If this job no longer exists, they can reassign you to another job. If there is no work for you at all under your contract of employment, you may be dismissed for redundancy. However, it is not an option for you to be dismissed just because you have been absent from work for a long time because of illness.
We discuss when you can be dismissed for redundancy in our article.
You are not obliged to do any work while you are temporarily unable to work and your employer cannot force you to do any work. If your employer wants you to continue working from home while you are sick, it is up to you whether you agree to this request. Of course, you have the right to forget about work for the duration of your sick leave.
If you want to agree to your employer’s request, it would be more appropriate for your employer to allow you to work from home. In this case, you would be paid the standard wage for your work as if you were working in an office and not on temporary sick leave at all.
For the first 14 days of incapacity, the employee will receive wage replacement from the employer, calculated on the average gross hourly wage for the previous period. From the 15th day onwards, sickness benefits are paid by the State, which are also calculated on the basis of gross wages, with reductions based on the previous year’s wages.
Sick pay is paid monthly and is sent to a bank account or paid by bank transfer. The employer has the right to monitor compliance with the sick pay scheme.
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