Legal provisions related to sick leave

Legal provisions related to sick leave

Regarding an employee’s absence due to illness and the reimbursement of such absence please note the following:

1. An employee, in order to be eligible to reimbursement for sick leave must be employed for at least 10 days by the same employer.
2. Employees must notify their employers about their absence due to illness by any means and verify their condition by providing a letter by the doctor who will also indicate the number of days that the employee will apply for sickness leave.
3. Employees can claim half a salary in case they are employed for a period greater than 10 days and shorter than a year and a full salary in case they are employed for 1 year or more. If the period of the sick leave is greater than the days of work corresponding to the above amounts (i.e. more than half a month or one month) then they cannot claim any further reimbursement.
4. If the employee is on sick leave for up to 3 days, regardless of how many times in the same year this happens, the employer must reimburse the employee with the half daily salary for the (up to 3) days of leave.
5. If the duration of the sick leave is longer than 3 days for the first time within a year, the employer must cover half of the daily salary as described above for the first 3 days (defined as waiting time). Since the 4^th day of leave and up to a month’s duration the employee receives a daily compensation by the Social Security Institution. For the reimbursement due to illness, the employee must apply through the electronic services of EFKA and submit all supporting  documents online. Afterwards, the employer must electronically approve the application of the employee and then the application is processed, and the sickness benefit is paid to the employee. The procedure may take 2-3 months, thus, the employer pays the monthly remuneration to the employee for the month of the illness only by deducting half the salary for the first 3 days of sick leave. The month that the sickness benefit is paid to the employee the employer proceeds to  the setting-off and pays to the employee only the remaining  the amount (up to the actual monthly payment). Noted that the employee must be reimbursed with his/her actual salary even during the period of illness, as if he/she was at work.
6. If the employee is on sick leave for over 3 days for more than one time, then the procedure is the same with the aforementioned (in point 5, above) but without the first step of the 3-days waiting time. This means that the employee after setting-off the reimbursement by the Social Security Institution pays to the employee the rest of the amount up to the actual salary counting from the first day of illness without deducting the half daily salary at the first 3 days.

*             The information is accurate to the best of our knowledge as at the time of writing. We have no obligation to update it. We accept no responsibility against any third party who is not a client of the firm and has not signed the terms of our engagement.