Apart from the economic crisis, Czech companies have another problem to fight with in the long run. A high proportion of people on sick leave increases the company’s costs and complicates its position on the market. The problem has now intensified because employees fear they would lose their job and many of them rather choose a long-term sick leave. When sick, they cannot be fired.
Moreover, businesses cannot insure against the duty to pay earnings replacement. Insurance companies do not offer such a product, discouraged by the number of malingerers and frequently sick people in the Czech Republic. It has turned out that such a product would be too costly and would not pay off.
“First we thought of such an insurance, but when we had first calculations, we stopped it,” the spokeswoman for insurance company Uniqa said. Insurance company ČP Zdraví, specialised in private health insurance, has come to the same conclusion.
So businesses have to choose a different method to fight with sick workers and especially with cheaters. Checks of sick employees is one of the options.
A check for CZK 100
Not only a colleague or superior, but also a hired company can find out whether a sick employee is at home.
Checks of sick employees are on the agenda of most security agencies on the Czech market, both large and local. The price of checking up on one employee by a security agency worker is in the order of hundreds of crowns. Large customers can get discounts and pay flat monthly fees.
If an employer discovers a malingerer, it does not have to pay earnings replacement. “Our detectives check dozens of people a month. More than half of the checks reveal that an employee on sick leave did not comply with the treatment regime,” said Zuzana Fryaufová, spokeswoman for the security agency ABL. However, the high malingering occurrence is given by the fact that most firms only have “suspicious” employees checked.
Companies can also apply for a check with the local social security authority that is obliged to perform the check. “We cooperated with the social security authority before, and also now we assume that we will order most checks there,” said Jitka Pajurková of T-Mobile’s press department.
Prevention and sick days
What is usually more advantageous for both employers and employees is introducing terms under which employees can be on sick leave and receive their full wage, but only if really necessary. Taking a few days off at a time of sickness is a common practice, but that is only suitable when employees have enough vacation days left and are able to predict the length of the sickness.
Many companies offer their employees sickdays – a few days during which a worker with a cold can stay in bed and receive full wage.
Work from home is another option. “Having one’s leg in a cast can be a certain barrier for everyday stay at the workplace, but it does not prevent the employee from working with his or her computer at home,” Alžběta Šťastná, spokeswoman for Volný, commented on the approach her company applies.
In general, the lowest malingering rate is among people with higher wages for whom the ceiling on sickness allowances means too big a fall in income. “A vast majority of our employees are skilled people for whom it does not pay off to be sick. Checks also showed that we do not face malingering,” said František Polák, spokesman for the construction company Metrostav.
Insurance only for managers
While insurance companies do not offer businesses the possibility to insure the duty to pay earnings replacement in the first two weeks of sickness, people with higher incomes can get insurance of daily benefits. That means that from a certain day of sickness, an insurance company pays the client the difference between the sickness allowance and his or her standard income. Companies use the product mainly as a motivation benefit for higher-ranked employees.
“As of this year, within employee benefits, we top up incomes of all employees to 75% of their net wage starting from the beginning of the third week of sickness. With managers, we use a group insurance from ČP Zdraví,” said Andrea Krajniaková of Holcim Česko, a company operating in construction.
The price of insurance of daily benefits is in the order of thousands of crowns a year per employee. Based on information about individual companies, insurers offer special terms of group insurance.
