Workers, like anyone else, are constantly exposed to risk situations and diseases. If someone is physically incapacitated by an accident or illness to the point of not being able to carry out their duties, this means that said person is in a state of temporary disability and this will prevent them from working until they are in full recovery.
Below we will explain some important points about temporary disability and the effects that it can cause in terms of the economy of the affected person.
What is temporary disability?
Temporary disability is defined as the situation a worker is in that you are temporarily unable to work and that you need the social security health care.
This causes the affected person to be unable to work due to physical conditions, which means that the work activity of the person is suspended, so that the worker does not have the obligation to attend his job and the employer does not have the obligation to pay his salary.
This in turn gives you the rights to assistance through social security. Next we will mention who pays for this economic benefit to temporarily disabled workers, the ways in which they can acquire this benefit and the conditions and requirements that apply to disabled workers.
What can disabled workers do?
Workers in this situation have the right to collect an economic benefit in order to cover the lack of income that occurs due to the inability to go to their jobs.
How much money will the worker receive while on leave?
The amount of money the worker receives It is calculated on the basis of the worker's contribution from the month before the leave.
In case of common illness or non-work accident, 60% is valid from day 4 to day 20. From day 21, it increases to 75%
In case of a work accident or occupational disease, from the next day it is 75%
From the first day to the third, the worker is not awarded extra financial aid.
Pay is managed by the companyThis from the fourth day until the 15th day. In case the 16th day has been reached, the payment is now administered by the INSS, the national social security institute.
Causes and requirements
The causes of temporary disability are:
- The common or occupational disease.
- The accident is work or not.
To be able to charge the economic benefit to which workers who are on temporary disability are entitled, must meet some requirements, including:
- Have a period of time of 180 days within the 5 years prior to the withdrawal.
In the case of an accident, whether or not it is at work, or in the case of illness caused by work, there is no requirement for a contribution price period for workers to acquire financial assistance.
Obligations of the company and the worker
The time in which a worker is on leave will generate some effects of seniority, having the right to join his job once this situation has been finalized.
The worker must deliver to the company the termination and confirmation report within three days of its issuance, as well as the registration report and reincorporation to their job within the following 24 hours.
Time during which workers have the right to collect their financial aid.
There is a maximum duration during which the collection can be made, which is twelve months and can be prolonged for about six months. It is important to mention that during this time, the worker can be discharged for reaching a full recovery.
How do collective agreements affect in these cases?
The collective agreements They may establish that the worker can collect 100% of the salary, as well as establish the payment from the first day of leave.
Social security benefits
When a person registers as a self-employed person, the first thing social security asks him is on what contribution base he wants to choose; the minimum contribution base is 850,20. This applies to all workers under the age of 47, the age at which social security makes a series of exceptions. This is the temporary disability benefit for common contingencies to which workers can access, which is mandatory as of 2008.
The causes can be common contingencies, which we can count as an illness or common like a cold, or some non-work accident like a fall. These contingencies must not be related to your profession. If a person becomes ill, the temporary disability begins, this person will receive a benefit due to the contingency suffered, and the worker will not pay anything to receive said economic benefit.
Process to collect the economic benefit in case of temporary disability
At the moment in which the worker has registered as a self-employed person, they must choose the temporary capacity category within which it is located. The person must be current with their payments and not have debts with social security for the process to continue, so they must make sure that they do not owe money to the service.
An application will be given to the worker, which must be filled out in writing and in which it will be known that the person is requesting the economic benefit for temporary disability, as well as the declaration of the activity, where the person will indicate the way in which his position or business will continue to stand while he recovers from the contingency. Whether it will leave an employee in charge, or a family member or some other person, must be specified in this document.
Both the low part, as the confirmations, such as the unsubscribe, They must be taken to the accident insurance company that has been chosen at the time a person registers as a self-employed worker. These documents can be presented physically by email.
Everything is followed up through verifications such as the physical examination of the person by a family doctor and review of the documents to verify that the worker applies for receive the financial benefit corresponding through social security.
Once the general medical discharge, the claim or appeal made by the company against this medical discharge, which is called a challenge to the medical discharge, does not suspend the enforceability of that medical discharge. In other words, when they register, the company has the obligation to rejoin the next day.
Something important to denote is that the claim period for medical discharges It is very brief, normally it consists of eleven to fifteen days and that is why it is important to contact a specialist who will advise you to find out if it is feasible or not to challenge the medical discharge you have.
It is also important that the worker who is in temporary disability request a medical report from the specialist that he is treating them in relation to the disease condition they suffer, since it has happened that the workers have an old report from the specialist, which can cause conflicts when claiming financial benefits.
Relapse to temporary disability
Imagine that a worker is in sick leave for about eight months and he is given medical treatment and is discharged, that is, he recovers. If the worker re-enters into temporary disability for the same reasons for which he had been previously within the six months following the previous discharge, the period in which he was discharged is accumulated to the previous one. That is, if in the eight-month period two months pass and you have to reapply for the leave since you realize that you cannot develop in your workplace for the same reason as the previous leave, it will not start from zero not that time will be accumulated.
This is important, since in order to know if you have to pass that control of the limit year in which you can stay on temporary disability, It must be considered whether the withdrawal has been due to relapse or not.
This situation also causes some important economic effects, since the payer of this withdrawal will be determined by the internal withdrawal; that is, if it was a mutual insurance company for work accidents, that mutual will have to pay for it, and the economic amount will be determined in the previous leave.