Nina Vuković

According to the provisions of the Law on Health Insurance (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 25/2019) and the Labor Law (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 24/2005, 61/2005, 54/2009, 32/2013, 75/2014, 13/2017 – Constitutional Court Decision, 113/2017 and 95/2018 – authentic interpretation), the employer is given the opportunity to initiate the procedure of re-evaluation, i.e. expertise of already approved sick leave, all with the aim of sanctioning the abuse of this right, in case of doubt in the justification of the grounds of sick leave.

If there are doubts for justification of the reasons for absence from work due to illness, the employer may submit a request to the competent healthcare authority to determine the health ability of the employee, i.e. expertise of the health condition of the worker:

– directly to the healthcare institution- when the working ability was evaluated by a single doctor

or

– to the branch of the Republic Fund for Healthcare Insurance (hereinafter: the Republic Fund)- if the incapacity for work was evaluated by the medical commission.

In the second case, in addition to unjustified opening of sick leave, its abuse can be determined on the basis of inadequate duration of sick leave.

Also, in case it is determined that for the employee was issued an unfounded confirmation of incapacity for work, there is also the responsibility of the chosen doctor, given that it is clearly defined that chosen doctor and medical commissions can determine the existence of incapacity for work only due to the reasons of Article 73, paragraph 1 of the Law on Health Insurance (illness, injury, care of a family member).

Additionally, according to Article 146 of the Law on Health Insurance, if it is determined that the elected doctor has abused his authority concerning employees’ rights for the sick leave (for example, approved sick leave without real reasons), the Republic Fund takes measures to revoke the authority of the elected doctor and submits an initiative to the competent chamber of health workers to revoke the licence of the chosen doctor.

We also note that if the employer in the procedure of control of the basis of sick leave of a particular employee determines that the employee unjustifiably used or abused the right to sick leave (abused sick leave), it is a justified reason that gives the employer the opportunity to terminate the Labor contract according to Article 179, paragraph 3, point 3 of the Labor Law.

For any further inquiries, do not hesitate to contact us at of****@nv****.rs