Sick pay
If an employee becomes ill and is therefore unable to come to work or otherwise perform their job, the employer is, for certain periods, obliged to pay sick pay to the employee. The matter of sick pay is often regulated in collective agreements and may therefore differ between industries where employees are covered by such agreements. It is therefore important to check what applies in any collective agreement that covers your workplace.
Unless otherwise stipulated in an applicable collective agreement, the main rule under the Sick Pay Act is that the employer is obliged to pay sick pay from the first day the employee is absent, wholly or partially, due to illness.
The employee must prove that they have been absent due to illness by means of a written declaration. The declaration must state that the employee has been ill and to what extent they have been absent from work because of illness. It does not need to state which illness caused the reduced work capacity.
If the employee is ill for more than seven days, they must prove that their work capacity is reduced through a medical certificate from day 8.
What is a first-day certificate?
Under certain specific conditions, the employer may request that the employee, when absent due to illness, submit a medical certificate to prove their reduced work capacity earlier than after the seventh calendar day following the day of reporting sick — or from the first day of any future sick leave period. This is known as a first-day certificate.
Such a request from the employer must be in writing to be valid. The requirement for the employer to be allowed to request a first-day certificate is that special grounds exist. Such grounds may apply when there are specific rehabilitation considerations to take into account, or when oversight considerations justify bringing forward the certificate requirement.
One example of when the conditions for bringing forward the requirement may be considered fulfilled is when the employee has had many short periods of illness within a limited time without having seen a doctor, and without any indication that they suffer from a chronic illness or similar.
By when must a first-day certificate be submitted?
Through the first-day certificate, the employee must prove reduced work capacity earlier than after the seventh calendar day following the sick report. Note, however, that a doctor cannot issue a first-day certificate if you no longer show symptoms of illness or cannot provide records from a prior visit to, for example, a health centre. A request that relates to an ongoing sick pay period may mean that the certificate must prove reduced work capacity from a point earlier than the seventh day after the sick report. Regarding future sick leave periods, such a request for a medical certificate may mean that the certificate must cover reduced work capacity from the first day of the sick leave period. A request that targets future sick leave periods may not cover a period longer than one year. The certificate does not need to contain a diagnosis.
What happens if the employee does not submit the certificate?
If an employee does not submit a certificate as required by a written request from the employer, the employer is not obliged to pay sick pay for the time during which no certificate has been provided. If a certificate is submitted proving reduced work capacity during a later part of the sick pay period, there is however an obligation to pay sick pay for that part.
If the employee can make it probable that there is an acceptable reason for not having submitted the requested certificate, the obligation to pay sick pay does not cease. This means that it must have been excusable for the certificate not to have been submitted for the intended period.
An example of such excusability may be that the employee, despite trying, was unable to get a doctor’s appointment in time. It should be noted that there is no obligation on healthcare providers to issue first-day certificates to employers. If a patient contacts healthcare about a first-day certificate, it is — as usual — the medical need that determines how the patient is prioritised. Another example may be that, due to the special nature of the course of the illness, there were physical obstacles to travelling to a doctor.
