STA, 27 June 2022 - The coronavirus pandemic and new legislation related to absenteeism have exacerbated a little discussed issue that the public health insurance fund says demands urgent attention. Faced with a continuing rise in the share and amount of sick leave costs it is having to bear, the ZZZS is urging change, in particular for long-term absences.
While the healthcare spotlight has mostly been on the long waiting lines for treatments and the debate on how much privatisation should be tolerated in the sector, the ZZZS has seen absenteeism costs born by it rise from EUR 225 million in 2013 to EUR 315 million in 2017, then to EUR 442 million in 2020 and to EUR 498 million in 2021.
The figures recorded by June have the ZZZS speaking of the possibility of exceeding EUR 700 million this year, which is partly the result of pandemic restrictions that continued into this year and legislative changes introduced last year.
The changes shortened the number of sick leave days covered by employers from the first 30 days to the first 20 days, which means the ZZZS shoulders the costs sooner. What is more, the maximum number of sick leave days in a year covered by employers has been reduced from 120 to 80 days. Anything beyond that is borne by the ZZZS.
A look at 2021 shows employers covering a total 807,278 sick leave absences amounting to 5,745,668 days, while the ZZZS bore the costs of 551,539 absences totalling 8,438,690 days.
The share of work days lost to sickness in the total number of work days rose by 0.6 percentage points in 2021 to 5.1%, with the share covered by the ZZZS rising from 2.6% to 3%.
While the average duration of absence due to sickness or injury was about 11 days in the past two years, the ZZZS had to cover all the costs stemming from mandatory isolation due to the epidemic.
The fund is meanwhile noting costs will also continue to rise because of the relatively high employment rate, later retirement, the absence of a cap on the number of paid sick leave days, and the lacking coordination of procedures ascertaining temporary and permanent work disability.
The ZZZS argues Slovenia's legislation governing long-term sick leave absences is at odds with those in modern European countries, "where the duration of sick leave is usually limited to one year".
Highlighting ongoing absences that began as far back as 2009, it notes that the tendency to continue extending absences due to sickness or injury as opposed to applying for disability status is also driven by compensation in the former case being higher.
The ZZZS says the aim of future systemic measures should be to preserve the working capacity of insured persons. The key challenges include rapid reintegration in the work process, which can be achieved with effective vocational rehabilitation, workplace adaptation, earlier and more active involvement of employers and the occupational health profession.
The fund sees the need to reorganise the right to sick leave compensation in a way comparable to other European countries, to raise awareness with workers about their responsibility for their health and with employers about the need for a safe and healthy working environment.
It demands a reform of disability legislation to speed up procedures, adequate disability benefits, a shift from focusing on the incapacity for work towards finding and recognising the work capacity that remains, and for a boosting of rehabilitation efforts.
