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Cabinet wrestles with sick leave

Constitutional Court ruling forces state to soften reforms

By Victor Velek
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 30th, 2008 issue

The government’s reform enthusiasm has received its first blow.
A recent ruling by the Constitutional Court has the Cabinet scrambling to make changes to its reform of the sick-leave system.
The ruling, which came down April 23, found the government’s mandate invalid that employees receive no pay for the first three days of their absence from work due to illness. The court ordered the law rewritten by the end of June.
In response, the Cabinet met April 28 to discuss how to “unreform” the law, among other topics. The ministers failed to hint at how the sickness insurance rules will be rewritten.
“The government decided to wait for a written finding,” said Labor and Social Affairs Minister Petr Nečas. The ruling published online by the court is unsatisfactory, superficial and cloudy, he added.
According to Nečas, new sickness rules will be proposed when a detailed written ruling is received. “We will prefer a solution upholding the positive impact of the current system as much as possible,” added spokesman Jiří Sezemský.
The Constitutional Court said its written decision would differ little from the text published on the Internet.
The disputed measure hurts honest employees in the name of fighting people who abuse sickness allowances, according to the court. In addition, it strips employees of their sickness benefits while forcing them to pay social security premiums.
Nečas said the current system was fair and widespread.
“Similar provisions can be found in 12 out of the 15 ‘old’ European Union member states,” he said, adding that statistics show the law has eliminated freeloaders.
According to the Social Security Administration, the number of sick absences dropped 28 percent after the rules came into force Jan. 1.
The verdict was hailed by the opposition Social Democrats and Communists, who brought the reform package to court. It is the first time the judges decided in favor of the plaintiffs. Earlier, the court approved the government’s tax reform and postponed a judgment on the healthcare reform indefinitely.
The Social Democrats have declared that they would support a return to the pre-reform scheme, which gave employees 25 percent of their income on the first three days of illness and 69 percent of pay for longer absences.
The Cabinet has two months to rewrite the law, a “deadline [that] is very tough and will be very hard to meet,” Sezemský said.
It is unclear how sickness payments will be doled out if the law is not changed by the set date. The old system could automatically enter into effect, Sezemský said. Or people may get 60 percent of their salary from the first day of illness, which is now reserved for longer sicknesses.

Victor Velek can be reached at vvelek@praguepost.com


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