To save money, the government wants to review the system of waiting days in the private sector when employees are on sick leave. But companies don’t want to foot the bill.
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On paper, not all employers are against tightening the conditions for sick leave reimbursement. If there were more waiting days, they say, this would avoid some abuses and stoppages of convenience, which are real headaches for companies that have to manage schedules. But once the principle is established, Bose fears that the idea of government will, in reality, cost him dearly.
Today, private sector employees have a three-day waiting period when they are on sick leave. That is, they have to wait until the fourth day for Social Security to reimburse them. The government is considering waiting for the fifth, sixth or seventh day to cut costs. Bet that won’t change much for most employees, since these waiting days are often reimbursed by their employer, at least in larger companies.
Employers are campaigning for days of “public order” defects
But, essentially, for companies, if they have to wait four, five or six days for tomorrow to be taken care of instead of three, that will be an added burden. And it is for this reason that employers are campaigning for what we call “public order” days. These days of lack of public order means that the days will be protected by law, in fact no one, the state or companies can compensate them. In fact, this option will save companies. Both Medef and CPME are campaigning to retain it. On the other hand, if this happens, the employees will be 100% losers.
Behind the scenes, the executive is working on this solution because, according to some government sources, it has the advantage of restoring a semblance of parity with the public service. In reality, public employees only have one day of waiting time when they are on sick leave and this is never compensated. For the moment, these are just routes, nothing has been decided yet, according to the government. It aims to save up to one billion euros out of the 16 billion that cover the cost of daily social security benefits each year.
