LBAS found two payment models for sick leave without reducing the employee’s social guarantees / Diena

LETA reminds the LBAS agency that currently the first day of incapacity for work is not paid, from the 2nd to the 9th day of incapacity, inclusive, these expenses are paid by the employer (page A), and from the 10th day – by the state (page B).

In the first model, LBAS proposes to exchange the days paid by the state and employers, that is, the 2nd and 3rd days of incapacity for work on sheet A are taken over by the state – 80% for each day – which would improve the monitoring and control possibilities. For the employer, sheet A starts from the 4th day, which means that the employer starts paying from the 4th day. LBAS explains that after that, the employer pays for the 10th and 11th days of sheet B – 80% for each day. Such a trade union offer is said to have arisen due to employers’ complaints that, when taking a leave of absence for a short period of time, some employees use these days dishonestly.

The second model proposed by LBAS envisages the same principle of payment for days of incapacity for work as is currently the case, except for the 9th day, which would be taken over by the state social budget. This means that the employee keeps the amount and number of sick days in full, but the financial resources of the social budget are cut a little. In order to compensate for these losses in social insurance, the parental insurance rate of 1.16% should be diverted to the basic budget with mandatory annual indexation, LBAS suggests. This has been the case in Estonia and Lithuania for a long time, and it has been discussed as a possible option in the coalition working group with social partners. LBAS indicates that these calculations have been made at the average salary in 2023 of 1,537 euros, at 21 working days per month.

The calculations made by LBAS show that the changes directed by employers in the payment of incapacity for work leaves could result in total losses of 73.4 million euros for the state and local governments, and specifically in the field of taxes – in the state social budget (49.4 million VSAOI) and the basic budget (six million IIN). , as well as in the budget of municipalities (18 million IIN), as well as additional costs for the 9th day in the amount of 18.2 million euros.

LBAS chairman Egils Baldzens said that there was a response at the expert level, but the proposals still need to be carefully evaluated.

“We simply showed that there is a possibility that the employees do not lose. For example, for one nine-day A sheet from the employees at the average wage, the employers get a little more than 245 euros. The employees, on the other hand, lose 99.56 euros. Such proposals as they are now , it should be carefully evaluated, it should be done while solving problems. But if there is a desire to take more and redistribute to ourselves, then we do not consider it a correct action,” Baldzens said.

He noted that currently employees receive compensation for six days, but employers want to reduce it to four days, reducing the amount of compensation from 80% to 70%. As a result, if the minimum wage earner receives 125 euros, then according to the proposal proposed by the employers, they will receive 40 euros less, or 74 euros. However, with the current prices of food and medicine, the need to eat and pay for utility services with this amount of compensation could be difficult to survive, Baldzens pointed out.