Medical certificates excusing employees from work will be issued digitally from July 1. The electronic sick notes will appear online in real time for the National Social Insurance Company (CNAS) to validate the sick leave and the corresponding payouts.
Under a draft Government decision pending approval, the e-certificates will be forwarded via the governmental e-services platform MConnect to the CNAS and to employers, with due regard to personal data protection.
The e-certificate will eventually eliminate the physical form. Another advantage is that the centralization of data will help to discourage employees visiting different doctors from abusing sick leave.
Compared to the current rules of issuing a sick note for an initial period of three days, with an extension of three additional days, and then other extensions depending on how serious the condition is, the new rules will allow for leaves lasting from 1 to 10 calendar days, with extensions granted only by specialist doctors for successive periods of up to a month.
