Sick leave drops 31 percent in Q1

Alaw that puts the financial responsibility for sick employees on employers rather than the state went into effect Jan. 1 and has been surprisingly successful, according to recently released data on the first quarter of 2009 from the Czech Social Security Office. The survey shows a 31.2 percent drop in the number of employees taking sick leave, a trend that may finally bring the Czech Republic in line with rates in other EU countries.

European Union figures reveal that average absenteeism - or fraudulent sick leave - in the Czech Republic stands at 6 percent, or double the EU average. Following increased pressure from the EU and local organizations such as the American Chamber of Commerce, the government passed a law that requires employees who take sick leave to be paid by their employer rather than the state, making skipped workdays a serious liability for companies looking to cut costs during a recession. The law also includes an amendment that allows employers to send private investigators to track the whereabouts of employees on sick leave during the first two weeks of their absence.

Employers who are actively keeping tabs on their employees have helped contribute to the 31 percent drop, a much-needed step according to Weston Stacey, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Prague.

"The primary issue is that the country traditionally has had a higher level of illness-related absences than other countries," Stacey said, but added that there remains a concern that overreaching reforms could punish employees who were legitimately ill.

"We presume that Czechs are not genetically more prone to illness than other humans. Therefore, the issue is either a poor level of health care or the incentives provided by the sick-leave policy," he said. "We should find a solution that brings the Czech population closer to the European average in work-related absences, which punishes doctors and companies for unethical behavior and protects the truly sick."

Tracking fraudsters

Zuzana Fryaufová, a public relations manager at ABL, a company that sends private investigators to track down sick employees, said the amendment has already proved effective in reducing absenteeism and that the significant decline in sick leaves indicates just how many employees were taking advantage of the former system.

"We can assume that the decrease in sick leaves means that this amount of sick leaves was fraudulent," she said.

Companies such as ABL are hired by employers, who provide a list of sick employees. A private investigator then goes to the sick employee's home to check his doctor's note. If the employee isn't at home, the investigator will try to locate him or her by contacting neighbors, Fryaufová said.

"If he can't track [the sick employee] down, he'll go to the local pub or grocery store, for instance, where the person is often located. Then it depends on the client, whether it's enough that the person wasn't at home, or whether he needs more evidence that could later be used in a legal dispute," she said.

Fryaufová said that fraudulent sick leave takes place mostly among low-level positions, such as manual workers, who can collect their full salary while on sick leave. Previously, when the state paid sick employees, companies would often send superfluous employees on sick leave when business was slow. According to Kamil Vařeka, a spokesman for the Czech Social Security Office, the new law changes the way such companies do business.

"Employees are no longer sending employees on sick leave when there is no work for them, as previously happened," he said. "Since the salary now comes from the employer's budget on the first two weeks of sick leave, it's not economically [sound]."

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com