Social Security - Sickness Insurance

Each agreement allows a maximum number of days of absence for sickness and the employer may fire the employee for a justified reason if he or she remains off work for a longer period. The sickness benefit is payable for periods of no more than 180 calendar days in a calendar year.

For workers on short-term contracts, the right to sickness benefit ceases when the employee stops work. In such cases, INPS pays the benefit directly to people who are unemployed or suspended from work (who do not receive an allowance to supplement their income), when the benefit is reduced to agricultural workers and workers hired on temporary contracts for seasonal work.

For most categories, the amount is equal to 50% of the average overall daily wage for the first twenty days of sickness and 66.66% for subsequent days of the same disease or a relapse.

Text last edited on: 02/2007

Source: European Union
© European Communities, 1995-2006
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