Payment of sick leave on holidays — according to what rules it occurs and what features it has, we will tell you in our material.
General rules for determining the period of paid sick leave
The current labor legislation guarantees an employee who is registered with an employer under an employment contract the payment of benefits for the period of his temporary disability (Article 183 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). The procedure for calculating and paying sick leave is defined by the law “On Social Insurance” dated 12/29/2006 No. 255-FZ.
We remind you! Since 2021, new rules for the payment of money on sick leave have been in effect. For more information, see our memo.
The situations obliging the payment of disability benefits are as follows (Article 5 of Law No. 255-FZ):
- illness or injury of the employee himself;
- taking care of a family member;
- quarantine established for the employee himself, his child under the age of 7 years or another incapacitated family member;
- the need for prosthetics in inpatient conditions;
- further treatment in a sanatorium (at a resort).
The entire period of the employee’s stay on sick leave is subject to payment (paragraph 1 of Article 6 of Law No. 255-FZ). At the same time, no exceptions are made to pay for sick leave on holidays or weekends falling during the period of illness. There are only restrictions on the duration of the paid period of disability, established by:
- for those who are being treated in a sanatorium (resort) — no more than 24 calendar days for the period of further treatment;
- who have become disabled due to illness — no more than 4 months in a row or 5 months in a calendar year;
- working on an urgent basis The employment contract is not more than 75 calendar days.
These restrictions do not apply in cases of tuberculosis. Persons with such a disease will be paid in full for the entire period of illness.
Sick leave issued in connection with the care of a sick family member is also limited in terms of the duration of the paid period. They will amount to no more (clause 5 of Article 6 of Law No. 255-FZ):
- 60 (for some diseases 90) calendar days in total for a calendar year — when caring for a child under the age of 7 years;
- 15 (and a total of 45 for a calendar year) days — when caring for a child aged from 7 to 15 years old;
- a total of 120 days per calendar year when caring for a disabled child under the age of 18, however, there will be no restrictions on the period of care for a child of the same age with HIV infection, post-vaccination complication or malignant disease;
- 7 (and a total of 30 days per calendar year) days — when caring for another family member.
Thus, in the general case, the duration of the paid period of disability is limited, and not the inclusion of any specific days in it.
Sick leave for children under 7 years old, disabled children under 18 years old, as well as for post-vaccination complications, HIV and oncology in children under 18 years old are issued for the entire period of care, i.e. without the above-mentioned time limits (order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development dated 11/23/2021 No. 1089n). But when paying for sick leave, these restrictions continue to apply. Therefore, employers should organize and keep records of days on paid children’s sick leave, so as not to overpay the allowance and not underestimate contributions. For example, you can use a special registry for this.
When can weekends and holidays fall into the non-payment period?
At the same time, the issue of paying sick leave on weekends and holidays may be related to periods for which sick leave is not payable in principle (Article 9 of Law No. 255-FZ). These are the periods when the employee:
- released from work without pay or with the preservation (full or partial) of average earnings, but not in connection with going on another vacation;
- suspended from work with non-deduction of salary for this period;
- is detained or subjected to administrative arrest;
- is undergoing a forensic medical examination;
- is idle, but not for a situation where the sick leave was issued before the start of the downtime caused by the employer.
There is no need to worry about paying sick leave on holidays and weekends that fall during such periods: they will not carry it out, since the entire period is unpaid.
But the payment of sick leave on holidays and weekends on a general basis will be made if the period of disability:
- coincided with the next vacation (in addition, this will lead to a shift in the end of the vacation or the transfer of its unused part);
- began before the onset of the downtime caused by the employer;
- fell on 30 calendar days following the employee’s dismissal (here sick leave it will not be paid in full, but only in the amount of 60%).
Read more about the payment of sick leave after dismissal here.
Principles of calculating the amount of sick leave payments
In general, the amount of the benefit is determined by multiplying the average daily earnings by the number of sick days and by such coefficients:
- district, taking into account the territorial features of the place of work;
- work experience, which takes the following values (but does not play a role in calculating maternity benefits and in case of industrial injury; for them, this coefficient is always equal to 100%):
- 100% for 8 years or more;
- 80% for 5 to 8 years of experience;
- 60% for less than 5 years of experience, but more than six months;
- the duration of the sick leave period issued when caring for a child in outpatient treatment:
- 100% (taking into account the seniority coefficient) for sick leave not exceeding 10 calendar days;
- 50% (taking into account the seniority coefficient) for days of sick leave exceeding 10 calendar days.
The amount of sick leave payments may decrease if the employee violated the doctor’s orders or the disability is related to intoxication (Article 8 of Law No. 255-FZ).
The average daily earnings are calculated by dividing the total amount of an employee’s income for the 2 years preceding the year of the start of sick leave by the number of days in the calculation period. At the same time, the amount of income in each year participating in the calculation cannot exceed the maximum amount from which insurance premiums were paid to the FSS in it. The number of days calculated for regular sick leave is always 730, and for calculating maternity benefits, the real number of days is taken into account, falling on the years taken for calculation.
The calculation of sick leave should be carried out from the amount of the federal minimum wage in effect on the date of the start of sick leave, in situations where:
- the total length of service of the employee is less than six months;
- the employee violated the doctor’s orders from the date of admission of violations;
- disability is associated with intoxication;
- there is no income for 2 billing years (when calculating benefits for during pregnancy and childbirth, this period may shift to previous years in which earnings were);
- according to the results of the calculations made, the average daily earnings turned out to be less than the calculated minimum wage.
Totals
Sick leave for days falling on weekends and holidays is paid in the usual manner, since there are no grounds for excluding these days from the calculation period. However, if the sick leave falls during a period for which it should not be paid, then the days off falling during this period will not be subject to payment.