The abolition of the pandemic sickness benefit

From the 1st of December 2021, the employees will no longer be entitled to the so-called pandemic sickness benefits, but the entitlements will be the same as for the “standard sickness benefit”.

The change will have a negative effect on both the employees and the employers.

As far as the employees, they will receive only 25% of the daily assessment base for the first three days whereas till now, they received 55% of the daily assessment base.

For example, an employee with a gross salary of 1,200 euros per month has received approximately 216 euros so far in a 10-day pandemic (quarantine). After the new one, he will receive approximately 181 euros, that is 35 euros less than before.

However, a fundamental change is taking place on the employers’ end. Until now, they did not carry the cost of the quarantine sickness benefit, because the Social Insurance paid sickness benefits to employees throughout the entire length of quarantine.

Nowdays the employers will finance the sickness for their employees for the first 10 days (practically the entire quarantine period) as they do with “ordinary” sickness.