Payment of sick leave for alcohol intoxication — is it provided for by current legislation, and if so, in what amount? From the article you will learn what to do if an employee has brought a sick leave due to an injury or illness received after excessive alcohol intake.
Is sick leave paid for alcohol intoxication
Payment of sick leave is a strict obligation of the employer (Article 183 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). An employee who is absent from work due to illness brings a sick leave at the end of it. On the basis of this document, he will receive the payments due to him by law.
All this fully applies to the situation when disability is associated with excessive alcohol intake. The employee is also issued a sick leave, but it will include a special code 021, meaning that the cause of the injury or illness was alcohol (or narcotic, toxic) intoxication.
What does this “embarrassing” code mean for an employer? This is a reason to think about a possible reduction in temporary disability benefits. However, the mere fact of the presence of the 021 code in the disability certificate is not a reason for reducing compensation.
Read about other codes specified in the sick leave here.
The state of intoxication is indicated in the hospital: is it possible to reduce the payment
According to Article 8 of the law “On Compulsory social Insurance” dated 12/29/2006 No. 255-FZ, in the case of an illness that occurred under the influence of one or another type of intoxication (including alcohol), the benefit is paid for the entire period of stay on sick leave. But in a limited amount, not exceeding the minimum wage for a full calendar month. At the same time, no merit, seniority or other grounds that increase the payment are applied. The only thing allowed is to adjust the amount of the allowance by the district coefficient.
Read about how the minimum wage has changed and what it is equal to today in this article.
If you have decided to reduce hospital payments, calculate the benefit limit using the formula:
Max = Minimum wage/Km × Kb,
where:
The maximum possible benefit for a disease received due to alcohol intoxication;
Minimum wage — the current minimum wage in the month of illness;
Km — the number of calendar days in the month of illness;
Kb is the number of days that the employee was on sick leave.
Pyou will find an example of filling out a sick leave by an employer in this publication.
Sick leave received by an employee under the influence of alcohol: finding out the circumstances
The employer decides independently whether or not to reduce the allowance. However, not at their own discretion, but after examining all the circumstances and unambiguously tracing the causal relationship between the employee’s disability and alcohol intoxication (letter from the Social Insurance Fund dated 04/15/2004 No. 02-10/07-1843). To do this, in each specific case, all available documents are carefully studied (certificates of medical institutions, documents drawn up by police officers, traffic police) and, of course, the explanations of the employee himself.
And it is not always possible to establish this very causal relationship. Here are just a few examples:
- An employee who is intoxicated was hit by a car when he was crossing the road in an authorized place at a green light.
- An accident occurred when an intoxicated employee was a passenger.
- The injury was sustained at work when, due to a malfunction of the equipment, alcohol vapors leaked, which the employee inhaled.
In all these situations, the employee is not to blame, and reducing the amount of temporary disability benefits, even if the hospital has the code 021, is unacceptable (resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the West Siberian District dated 07/27/2009 No. F04-4454/2009(11072-A27-25) in case No. A27-2071/2009).
In controversial cases, the decision on whether illness and alcohol intoxication are related is made by the social insurance commission (clause 2.2 of the Model Regulation on the Social Insurance Commission approved by the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation dated 07/15/1994 No. 556a).
Results
And now a brief summary.
The state of alcoholic intoxication is indicated in the hospital – is it paid? Yes, as well as sick leave on any other grounds of disability. However, if a causal relationship is established between the employee’s illness and his drunken state, the amount of sick leave should be reduced to the minimum, calculated based on the minimum wage.
Do you have any more questions? We invite you to read our section on temporary disability benefits and visit our forum, where you can always quickly get answers and recommendations from experienced experts.