An electronic certificate of incapacity for work, or, as it is also called, an electronic sick leave certificate, has become officially operational in Russia since mid-2022. At the request of the insured person and with his written permission, a document indicating temporary disability can be issued by a medical organization in electronic form. Electronic sick leave is recognized as equivalent to paper sick leave, and the amount of its payment does not depend on the chosen form.
The technology for processing and issuing electronic sick leave does not require either printing the document or sending it directly from the medical organization to the employer. The interaction between the employee, the employer and the medical institution occurs through the FSS information system - UIIS "Sotsstrakh". It stores the electronic sick leave from creation to closure.
Not only public clinics and hospitals can create a sick leave certificate electronically, but also private ones, for example, clinics connected under VHI.
Electronic sick leave: how to apply for an employee
What steps must an employee go through to receive sick leave in a paperless format?
As mentioned at the beginning, electronic sick leave can only be issued by workers after submitting a written application to the medical institution. The attending physician must give the employee a form for such an application, and he, in turn, must fill it out. The sick person informs the medical organization about SNILS.
After the doctor “closes” the sick leave sheet (as he “discharges” the patient), the medical organization will create an electronic sick leave sheet in the Social Insurance Unified Information System and fill out its part in it. The doctor will give the employee a special coupon, which will contain the number of the electronic sick leave certificate. The employee does not need to receive anything else from the medical institution - no stamps, no signatures.
All that is then required from the employee is to transfer the electronic sick leave number to the employer - to the appropriate service, usually human resources. You do not need to provide the ticket itself.
Violation of deadlines for granting sick leave
If the sick leave was transferred more than six months after it was closed, then the organization cannot provide compensation for disability.
If the organization is unable to pay benefits due to a delay in submitting sick leave, the employee must contact the social insurance fund with a written indication of the reasons for the delay in sick leave.
Good reasons
The law provides for situations when an employee may be late in issuing sick leave. In this case, compensation is paid without additional proceedings. Valid reasons are:
- incapacity for work that lasts more than six months. It must also be confirmed by a medical institution;
- situations that fall under the definition of force majeure circumstances;
- moving to another locality;
- loss of a close relative;
- in case of dismissal, which is subsequently recognized as illegal.
Other situations may become valid only after a court decision.
No valid reasons
If an employee has delayed sick leave for more than the permissible period, he applies to the Social Insurance Fund. The FSS, in turn, may consider the reasons for the delay unjustified, and the employee is not provided with compensation for temporary disability. Providing sick leave in this case only confirms that absence from work on the dates indicated on the sick leave is not absenteeism.
Lack of certificate of incapacity for work
An employee may lie about illness and possible sick leave or pass on a fake. You can check the authenticity of the document and the fact of illness by calling a medical institution. If the data is not confirmed, each day the employee is absent from work is marked as absenteeism. The manager can choose disciplinary punishment at his own discretion: reprimand, reprimand and subsequent dismissal. Read more about how to check the authenticity of a sick leave certificate here.
Both the organization and the employee are responsible for fake sick leave. The organization is responsible to the Social Insurance Fund: if a payment is made according to the document, the organization returns the funds spent by withholding payments to the guilty employee. The employee is criminally liable for forgery of documents.
Electronic sick leave: what an employer must do to start working
The transition to electronic certificates of incapacity for work is voluntary for the employer; no sanctions are provided for working with these documents only in paper form.
We will consider the procedure for connecting electronic sick leave certificates below.
The first thing that needs to be done is to conclude an agreement with the FSS to begin information interaction.
The second necessary and mandatory action is to buy an enhanced qualified electronic signature. Then install an electronic sick leave verification program at the workplaces of employees who will work with electronic sick leave technology.
Taxcom Certification Center offers various electronic signatures, including for B2G document flow and reporting to government agencies.
The third step is to purchase software from which the organization's employees will work with this electronic document. You can use both software provided by the state (for example, the personal account of an FSS policyholder) and special accounting programs and services. Such software is provided by many EDF operators. We’ll talk about Taxcom’s solutions for exchanging data and documents with the Social Insurance Fund in the field of electronic sick leave below.
The final step is to inform all employees of the organization that they can start requesting sick leave from a doctor electronically.
Certificate of incapacity for work samples: legislative framework
A certificate of incapacity for work is a document used to document periods of illness and certain other circumstances of an employee, due to which there is an absence from visiting the workplace and performing work duties.
The rules for issuing sick leave, its issuance and payment are defined in such legislative acts as:
- Law “On compulsory social insurance..." dated December 29, 2006 No. 255-FZ;
- order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation “On approval of the procedure...” dated 09/01/2020 No. 925n (valid from 12/14/2020 instead of the previous order dated 06/29/2011 No. 624n).
We wrote about innovations in the design of sick leave in the article.
The form of the certificate of incapacity for work was approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation “On approval of the form...” dated April 26, 2011 No. 347n. The bulletin looks like this:
The above regulations indicate how to issue sick leave correctly (including in 2020-2021).
Registration is carried out by the attending physician of the clinic or the medical institution where the treatment took place. The form of the document must comply with the requirements of Order No. 347n. Recommendations for filling out sick leave were given by the Social Insurance Fund in letters dated 08/05/2011 No. 14-03-11/05-8545, dated 09/14/2011 No. 14-03-11/15-8056 and dated 10/28/2011 No. 14-03-18/ 15-12956.
The paper bulletin can be replaced by an electronic sick note (ELN). Read how an employer can issue an electronic certificate of incapacity for work here. The use of ELN is becoming increasingly widespread. Electronic and paper sick leave do not differ in their functions
An electronic sick leave number has been received from an employee: what to do next?
After the employer has received the number of the electronic sick leave sheet, he must use the above-mentioned specialized software to find the sheet in the Social Insurance Unified Information System.
After a successful search for sick leave, it is requested from the FSS. In the document, fill in all the columns in the “To be completed by the employer” section. The electronic version of the sick leave sheet contains the same columns as the printed one.
After filling out, you need to put an electronic signature on the document and save it. The data will be automatically sent to the Social Insurance Fund and the employer will be able to make sick leave payments. This procedure applies to regions that have not yet switched to direct payments from the Social Insurance Fund under the pilot project.
Sick leave while caring for a child
Sick leave for caring for children aged 7 to 15 years is no longer limited to 15 days. Previously, it could only be extended by the conclusion of a medical commission. There are no such restrictions in the new rules. But the benefit can be received for a maximum of 15 calendar days for each case of treatment and for no more than 45 calendar days per year. The fact is that the conditions and duration of payments for such sick leave are established by another document - Law No. 255-FZ (clause 2, clause 5, article 6), and they have not changed.
The restrictions on sick leave for caring for a child over 15 years of age have been removed: up to three days for outpatient treatment. Now a certificate of incapacity for work will be issued for a period of up to 7 days for each case of illness without the decision of a medical commission.
We added a clause stating that if two or more children fall ill at once, one electronic sick leave will be issued.
How electronic sick leave is paid: terms
Payment for an electronic sick leave is the same as for a paper one; the selected option does not affect the assignment of benefits.
The procedure for paying for electronic sick leave is as follows. If the organization is located in a region of the Russian Federation in which the “Direct Payments” pilot project is not being implemented, then within 10 days from receiving the sick leave number from the employee, the employer assigns a benefit. He calculates the amount of the benefit and indicates it in certain columns of the document. The payments themselves for electronic sick leave are made with the next salary - that is, similar to the procedure for paying sick leave on paper.
If the employer is located in a region participating in the FSS pilot project, then the payment procedure changes slightly. Within up to 5 days, the employer is obliged to transfer information about the employee to the Social Insurance Fund, and within up to 10 days, the Social Insurance Fund must pay sick leave.
Period of provision after dismissal
After dismissal, an employee may also become ill. He has the right to compensation if:
- The documents were completed within 30 days from the date of settlement with the previous employer.
- The person began to get sick while he was an employee at the enterprise, and a document about the illness was presented after payment was made.
Important! Payment for sick leave after dismissal will be made only on the basis of the employee’s illness. For care and other reasons, benefits will not be issued to the dismissed employee.
Payment for electronic sick leave: how the payment is calculated
In addition to the fact that you need to understand how sick leave is paid, you also need to know how to pay for electronic sick leave, what formulas to use? Let us remind you that both electronic and paper sick leave are paid exactly the same.
Sick leave payments depend on the minimum wage established in the country. The minimum cost of a sick day starts from this amount.
For those employees who have an official total work experience of more than eight years, sick leave is paid according to the standard formula: average employee earnings X 24 months / 730 days = the cost of one day of earnings. It turns out that the payment is made as for the day worked, that is, 100 percent.
To calculate the total amount of payment, it is enough to multiply the average daily income received by the number of days indicated on sick leave.
If the employee’s work experience is less than eight years, then special coefficients will help in calculating payments for electronic sick leave.
With experience up to six months
The cost of one day of sick leave will be calculated based on the minimum wage established for the year.
With experience from six months to five years
the entire amount of sick leave payments will be calculated as 60% of the calculated average cost of one day.
With five to eight years
the entire amount of sick leave payments will be calculated as 80% of the calculated average cost of one day.
What is important: if sick leave is issued to an employee due to an occupational disease, work injury or pregnancy and childbirth, then the above coefficients do not apply. Sick leave in such situations is paid at 100 percent.
Average earnings are calculated for the two years preceding the employee receiving sick leave.
If the submission deadline has expired
The law stipulates the submission of sick leave and other documents for the calculation of insurance payments to the employer within 6 months from the date when:
- the doctor confirmed the patient’s complete recovery;
- the medical commission approved the loss of ability to work and assigned a working or non-working disability group;
It is quite difficult not to submit documents within this wide period of time, but in practice this happens often. An employee may miss a date for good or bad reasons.
For a good reason
Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development No. 74 lists valid reasons for missing the time for taking the BC:
- circumstances that the employee could not influence (emergencies, such as a hurricane or fire);
- if rehabilitation after the closure of the sick leave took more than six months;
- moving;
- recognized illegal dismissal of an employee due to which he was not at work;
- death of a loved one;
- caring for a relative.
If the employee has evidence that confirms one of the listed factors, he will be able to defend his benefits.
For no good reason
If an employee cannot prove a valid reason for late submission of sick leave, he will be denied social benefits. An interested person has the right to challenge the refusal through a court or a territorial labor inspectorate.
What Taxcom offers for working with electronic sick leave certificates
Document flow for electronic sick leave is available in all Taxcom reporting solutions, but we will focus on the simplest and most lightweight web account, Online Sprinter. It does not require the installation of additional programs; all work takes place online in the browser via a secure connection.
Working with electronic sick leave in the service is not at all difficult. Go to “Create reports and documents”, select “FSS”, “Sick leave”.
The sprinter will issue all forms of documents for working with electronic sick leave certificates. When filling out, the service will indicate the fields that are required. The error checking system will indicate incorrectly completed or missing fields, and the user will be able to return to the document to correct them before sending it to the regulatory authority.
In addition to reporting, Sprinter has functionality for electronic document management with counterparties (B2B).
Reporting to HR
Electronic sick leave document flow is part of the personnel document flow in an enterprise. Often, HR officers have to work not only with sick leave, but also with other reporting - for example, to the Pension Fund. Not long ago, a new form for reporting to this regulatory body appeared - SZV-TD.
Taxcom offers the “Personnel” tariff, which, in addition to the exchange of electronic documents with the Social Insurance Fund (for filling out electronic certificates of incapacity for work), includes an exchange with the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation (for submitting SZV-TD reports on electronic work books). The kit also includes a CEP.
You can find out more about personnel reporting and order a tariff in a special section of the Taksky website.
