Sick employee from day 91
Here you can read about what applies if your employee is sick for more than 90 days. As an employer you must take all of the measures necessary in order to help your employee return to work.
Day 91-180
Försäkringskassan will assess whether the employee can handle their regular work duties or other appropriate work that you can offer temporarily as employer. The employee is only entitled to sickness benefit to the extent that he/she is unable to perform any work at all for you.
The employer must:
- Have ongoing contact with the employee during the sick leave.
- Adapt the work situation as much as possible to enable the employee to work, for example by adapting work tasks, working hours or the workplace.
- Investigate whether there is other suitable work in your operations that the employee can temporarily do.
- Follow up on and, if necessary, update the plan for returning to work.
- Participate in a reconciliation meeting if Försäkringskassan invites you to one.
The employee must:
- Participate in planning and actions that will allow them to start working again as soon as possible.
Försäkringskassan must:
- Assess the employee’s work capacity.
- Pay the employee sickness benefit if he/she is entitled to this.
- Investigate whether the employee is able to perform another job outside your business.
- If needed, coordinate the different measures the employee needs to be able to return to work.
- If needed, request the employer to submit their plan for return to work.
- If needed, invite the parties to a reconciliation meeting.
Additional measures you can offer as an employer
You as an employer can receive workplace-oriented rehabilitation support from Försäkringskassan, a grant to investigate, plan, initiate, implement and follow up on what efforts are needed to prevent and shorten sick leave. If you have a collective agreement, there may be the possibility of applying for rehabilitation compensation from AFA Insurance.
Day 181-365
After 180 days the employee is only entitled to sickness benefit to the extent that they cannot perform any work on the regular labour market. Therefore, before day 181, Försäkringskassan will investigate whether the employee is able to do another job outside your business. If our investigation shows that the employee can do another job, the right to sickness benefit ends after 180 days.
This does not apply if:
- Försäkringskassan assesses that the employee is highly likely to be able to return to a job somewhere in your operations before day 366. In order for Försäkringskassan to be able to assess this, both the diagnosis made and the prognosis for return to work must be well-documented in the medical investigation.
- It may in certain cases be considered unreasonable to assess the employee's capacity to work in relation to work on the regular labour market, for example if he/she is seriously ill. In such cases, Försäkringskassan will assess the capacity to work in relation to a job for you as the employer.
The employer's responsibility for work adaptation and rehabilitation is governed by the Social Security Code, the Swedish Work Environment Act and the Employment Protection Act. Your responsibility as an employer applies as long as there is an employment relationship, even if the right to sickness benefit ends. If you have any questions regarding what applies to labour law if your employee is no longer entitled to sickness benefit, you can contact your employer organisation.
The employer must:
- Have ongoing contact with the employee during the sick leave.
- Adapt the work situation as much as possible to enable the employee to work, for example by adapting work tasks, working hours or the workplace.
- Investigate whether there is other suitable work in your operations that the employee can temporarily do.
- Follow up on and, if necessary, update the plan for returning to work.
- Participate in a reconciliation meeting if Försäkringskassan invites you to one.
The employee must:
- Participate in planning and actions that will allow them to start working again as soon as possible.
Försäkringskassan must:
- Investigate whether the employee could perform a job on the ordinary labour market despite the illness.
- Assess the employee’s work capacity.
- Pay the employee sickness benefit if he/she is entitled to this.
- If needed, request that employer submits their plan for returning to work.
- If needed, coordinate the different measures the employee needs to be able to return to work.
- If needed, invite the parties to a reconciliation meeting.
From day 366
Försäkringskassan will assess the employee’s capacity to work in relation to all jobs on the regular labour market. If our investigation shows that the employee can perform another job, the right to sickness benefit ends after 365 days. Försäkringskassan may in certain cases make exceptions if it can be considered unreasonable to assess the employee's capacity to work in relation to work on the regular labour market, for example if he/she is seriously ill.
The employer must:
- Have ongoing contact with the employee during the sick leave.
- Adapt the work situation as much as possible to enable the employee to work, for example by adapting work tasks, working hours or the workplace.
- Investigate whether there is other suitable work in your operations that the employee can temporarily do.
- Follow up on and, if necessary, update the plan for returning to work.
- Participate in a reconciliation meeting if Försäkringskassan invites you to one.
The employee must:
- Participate in planning and actions that will allow them to start working again as soon as possible.
Försäkringskassan must:
- Investigate whether the employee could perform a job on the ordinary labour market despite the illness.
- Assess the employee’s work capacity.
- Pay the employee sickness benefit if he/she is entitled to this.
- If needed, coordinate the different measures the employee needs to be able to return to work.
- If needed, request the employer to submit their plan for returning to work.
If needed, invite the parties to a reconciliation meeting.
