False sick leave claims to result in termination of employment?

The employers in Serbia will – maybe as soon as January 2019 – be able to lay off employees who use sick days on false claims according to the newest amendments to the Labor Law.

As Informer daily writes, these regulations were brought because of the estimates that show that out of 280,000 sick leaves used per year up to 11% were due to false sickness claims. That means that over 30,000 workers each year are absent from their jobs, despite having no health issues, RTV reports Informer's findings.

The amendments tot he law were proposed by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (CCIS) while these regulations will be up for consideration in the National Assembly at the beginning of 2019.

The President of the CCIS, Marko Cadez said that the new regulations would prevent increasing abuse of sick leave.

CCIS proposed to the Ministry of Labor that the law be amended in such a way to allow employees to ask for report from the healthcare center and ascertain the validity of sick leave claims if the percentage of employees absent from work during the month exceeded 10%.

– If it was confirmed that there was abuse of sick leave, the employer could lay off the employee in question, Cadez told Informer .

Privredna komora Srbije

Serbian Chamber of Commerce

Labor Law

amendments to the Labor Law

sick leave

false sick leave claims

Marko Cadez