Sick leave after dismissal in 2023-2024 – have the payment rules changed compared to previous periods? Let’s consider in which situations the employer is obliged to pay sick leave to a dismissed employee, what to do if the term of dismissal has come, and the employee is on sick leave, as well as the nuances of calculating benefits after dismissal.
Will sick leave be paid after dismissal?
It all depends on when exactly the person went on sick leave relative to the moment of dismissal.
Payment of sick leave after the dismissal of an employee in the same amount as if he had continued to work in the organization is carried out by the employer only if the person fell ill no later than the last day of work in the organization (paragraph 2 of Article 5 of the Law on Social Insurance dated 29.12.2006 No.255-FZ).
Thus, the employer must compensate an employee for sick leave in an amount calculated based on 100% of the average salary, if his insurance experience is 8 years or more, 80% of earnings, if the person’s insurance experience is 5 years, 8 years, 60% if the experience is less than 5 years.
Learn more about determining the amount of sick leave based on length of service here.
In turn, if a person falls ill within 30 days from the date of dismissal, then his former employer also has an obligation to pay sick leave, but no longer in full, but in the amount of 60% of the average salary of a former employee (paragraph 2 of Article 7 of Law No.255-FZ).
We remind you that now the employer charges and pays benefits only for the first 3 days of sick leave due to illness or domestic injury. The remaining amount of the allowance is calculated and paid to the employee of the SFR, and the fund pays for some benefits at 100%.
For more information, see our memo on direct benefit payments.
The scenarios we have considered are relevant if, by the time of the onset of the disease, the person has already written a letter of resignation (or the process of dismissing him from his post for other reasons has been launched). It’s another matter if a person initially did not plan to leave the company, but decided to quit during his illness.
Let’s consider how the sick leave is paid in this case.
How is a voluntary dismissal issued during a sick leave
Regardless of whether an employee is on sick leave or is working, he can exercise his right to dismissal in accordance with the provisions of art.80 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, that is, on his own initiative. Therefore, if a person has a desire to quit when he was on sick leave, from a legal point of view, this is considered in the same way as if he had done it while at work.
Having received a letter of resignation from an employee on sick leave under Article 80 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the employer can agree with him on the immediate termination of the contract or wait two weeks, during which the employee can still have time to go to work, and only after that arrange the termination of the employment relationship.
Read about the procedure for applying for voluntary dismissal in our special material.
If the sick leave lasts more than two weeks or the date of termination of the contract has already come by agreement, the employee will continue to receive compensation for sick leave, while being dismissed. Thus, in this interpretation, a two-week period after an employee submits an application for dismissal may not always be considered mandatory for working out. In this case, it is a formality, the observance of which is dictated by the norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
The official termination of an employment contract with an employee generally involves his appearance at the employer’s office. But what if, for example, a person has a high fever and cannot come to work?
Read about the rules for applying for dismissal in the article “How to write a letter of resignation correctly – a sample”.
How to terminate an employment contract with a sick employee
The dismissal of a sick person is issued in a general manner. There is no need to postpone the date of dismissal due to illness.
However, in this case, the employer may not be able to obtain the necessary signatures from the retiring employee and give him the workbook. Therefore, an order should be issued to terminate the contract with the employee and make an entry in it stating that due to the absence of the employee, it is impossible to inform him about the order (paragraph 2 of Article 84.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
Payment of sick leave after dismissal is carried out at will in accordance with the procedure established by law. The employee must bring documents confirming the illness to the accounting department. Within 10 days after the transfer of information by the employer to the SFR, the employee will receive appropriate compensation (clause 1 of Article 15 of Law No.255-FZ).
What to do if an employee brought a certificate instead of a sick leave — read in a special material.
Calculation of sick leave: nuances
There are a number of nuances characterizing the calculation and payment of sick leave.
The maximum amount of average daily earnings that can be taken into account when determining the amount of sick leave is:
- In 2023 -2736 rubles. 99 kopecks. This indicator is calculated based on the marginal base for insurance premiums in the SFR for the two calendar years preceding the one in which the employee went on sick leave:
- 966,000rubles. — in 2021
- 1 032 000 rub. in 2022.
- From 2024 – 4039 rubles 73 kopecks. Calculated based on the indicators of the marginal base:
- 1,032,000 in 2022;
- 1,917,000 in 2023.
For an example of calculating sick leave, see the article “Maximum size of sick leave in 2023-2024”.
In 2023, the benefit cannot be less than the minimum wage per full month. The minimum wage is taken on the day of the onset of the disease. In 2023, the minimum wage for January 1 is 16,242 rubles. In 2024, it will amount to 19,242 rubles.
As we said above, an employee has the right to receive from the SFR, through the mediation of a former employer, compensation for sick leave after dismissal within 30 days. But if during this time a person found another job (that is, a new employment contract was signed during this period) and fell ill after applying for it, then the obligations to ensure payment of sick leave are imposed on the new employer (paragraph 2 of Article 5 of Law No.255-FZ).
It can also be noted that an employee has the right to apply for the accrual of sick leave only within 6 months after recovery. If he misses this deadline, then the SFR can pay for the sick leave, if there are valid reasons for this pass (paragraphs 1-3 of art.12 of Law No.255-FZ).
The SFR pays benefits under the direct payment mechanism. Read more here.
Results
Payment of sick leave after dismissal is provided by law in three cases:
- if a person became ill while he was on staff (in this case, compensation is assigned to him according to the general scheme);
- if his child fell ill while he was still an employee of this organization;
- upon the onset of illness within 30 daysdays after dismissal (in the latter case, the employer pays the former employee sick leave in the amount of 60% of the average salary).
The fact that an employee is on sick leave is not a legal obstacle to obtaining a voluntary dismissal.