Health Board Adviser Pans Estonian Sick Leave System
Health Board epidemiology adviser Kuulo Kutsar recently criticized the current system of paid sick leave, as the first three days of absence are unpaid for the employee.
Kutsar told ERR radio this week that working through an illness is an affront to one's health, but added that it was also understandable from the economic and social aspect.
The fourth to eight day of sick leave is compensated by the employer, and from day nine, the state takes over, covering 70 percent of the daily salary. Statistics from 2011 indicate the decision to cut back on paid sick leave for the first days of the illness saved millions of euros from the Health Board's budget, as people were more reluctant to officially declare illnesses.
“A doctor's opinion on the sick leave system is that it was not created in the interest of the patient,” said Kutsar. The sick employees endanger their colleagues. In the highly contagious first three days of flu sickness, an employee is "like a walking flu-bomb," added the adviser.
Social Minister Taavi Rõivas told Eesti Päevaleht in early February that there are no funds to change the current system.