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The deadline for delivering the employee's sick leave to ZUS

What is the deadline for submitting an employee's sick leave to ZUS for the payment of sickness benefit? Is the employee obliged to provide a sick leave and inform about the disease?

Ewa, Augustów

The deadline for delivering a sick leave to ZUS

From January 1, 2016, doctors can issue electronic sick leaves, so, as a rule, the employee will no longer receive a paper document; at the employee's request, the doctor may only print a certificate. The doctor submits the ZUS ZLA medical certificate electronically - after signing it with the use of a certificate from ZUS, a qualified electronic signature or a trusted signature (PZ ePUAP) - to ZUS. ZUS, on the other hand, provides an exemption from ZUS ZLA:

the contribution payer (e.g. the employer) on his profile at PUE ZUS no later than on the day following the day of receiving the e-ZLA (without providing the statistical number of the disease);
an insured person (including an employee) with an insured / beneficiary profile at PUE ZUS.

The deadline for submitting the employee's sick leave to ZUS by the employer in the case of applying for the benefit is no longer obligatory. Thanks to the integration, the exemption goes to the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) immediately after being issued, so the payer does not have to provide it there on his own. The obligation to create a PUE ZUS profile by the end of 2015 rested on payers who were obliged to submit insurance documents in electronic form, i.e. paying contributions for more than 5 people.

If the employer employs fewer than 5 people, then the PUE profile may be created voluntarily. If he does not do this, he is obliged to inform employees that they must provide a printout of the certificate if the doctor issues it in electronic form. It is not necessary for the contribution payer to print ZUS ZLA - the proof of payment of benefits is ZUS ZLA in electronic form.

Should the employee provide ZUS ZLA?

In the event of an employee's illness, the employer may collect his sick leave on the PUE platform or receive it from the subordinate in a printed version. If the payer has a PUE account, because he employs more than 5 employees, or has set up an account voluntarily, then ZUS ZLA will reach him electronically and will be visible on the ZUS PUE profile at the payer. If the payer does not have a profile at PUE ZUS, the employee will provide the ZUS ZLA printout - it does not have to be forwarded to ZUS. Electronic sick leave will go to the office automatically after it is issued by a doctor. Interestingly, the regulations do not provide for sanctions for the payer not having created a profile at PUE ZUS, but this results in no access to electronic sick leaves, which may be associated with salary adjustments and other consequences for the payer. In summary, if an employee receives a printed sick leave, he should provide it to the employer immediately so that the employer becomes aware of his absence and can include it in the work time records. If, on the other hand, the employer has a PUE profile, then the employee is not obliged to provide a sick leave. In this case, the employer will receive ZUS ZLA for his profile. Start a free 30-day trial period with no strings attached!

ZUS ZLA and Z-3 - what should you remember?

If the employer is not the payer of benefits, ZUS will not pay the employee the benefit "from the automatic" - only on the basis of the dismissal that will be received. For the benefit to be paid, the payer must apply for it. The application is either a certificate of the contribution payer on form Z-3 - if the doctor has issued the e-ZLA medical certificate to the employee, or Z-3a - if the doctor has issued the e-ZLA medical certificate to the insured for another reason, e.g. the contractor. If the sick leave is uninterrupted, the payer should also send Z-3 or Z-3a form to ZUS, but not complete it in full. So:

the Z-3 form is filled in by the payer only to the section concerning information about the employee, to items 1 and 5;
the form Z-3a is filled in by the payer only to the section Information about the insured (and if the certificate is completed and sent to ZUS from the profile at PUE ZUS, the form should be completed only for the section on information about the insured, points 1-3 and 9).

Since the introduction of electronic sick leave, the deadline for delivering the employee's sick leave to ZUS is no longer binding, as the dismissal is immediately visible in ZUS. Other documents, i.e. the certificate of the Z-3 or Z-3a contribution payer, should be submitted to ZUS immediately, no later than within 7 days of receiving the ZUS ZLA medical certificate on the profile at PUE ZUS (if the payer has such a profile) or receiving from an employee of the ZUS ZLA printout or a certificate issued in an alternative mode (if the payer does not have a profile at PUE ZUS). Start a free 30-day trial period with no strings attached!

Does the employee have to report the disease?

Many employees think that since their employer has received an electronic sick leave for their profile, they no longer need to inform about the reason for their absence. Unfortunately, this is not true - although the employer will receive ZUS ZLA on his PUE account, the employee is still obliged to report that he will not be at work. The mere impact of ZUS ZLA on PUE is not tantamount to informing the employer about your illness. Pursuant to the Regulation on the method of justifying absenteeism and granting employees leaves from work, the employee should inform the employer about the cause and the expected period of absence from work, if the reason for the absence is known or foreseeable in advance. The mere receipt of ZUS ZLA to the employer is not tantamount to justifying the absence from work. The employee should immediately notify the employer of the reason for his absence.

If the provisions of the labor law in force at a given employer do not specify the method of notifying the employer of the reason for the employee's absence from work, the notification is made by the employee in person or through another person, by phone or via other means of communication or by post, and the date of the notification is then the date postmark. Failure to meet the prescribed deadline may be justified only by special circumstances that prevent the employee from fulfilling the obligation on time, e.g. his bedridden illness combined with the absence or absence of household members or another random event.

Summary - the date of delivering the employee's sick leave to ZUS

Since the introduction of electronic sick leave, i.e. ZUS ZLA, the flow of information between institutions is much easier. The deadline for delivering the employee's sick leave to ZUS is no longer required, because the sick leave goes directly to the Social Insurance Institution. Although the employer receives the employee's ZUS ZLA on the same day, the employee is still obliged to provide information as to the reason for his absence. A payer who does not pay benefits is not required to submit a sick leave to ZUS - only a Z-3 or Z-3a form is enough. These documents should be provided immediately within 7 days from the date of receipt of the sick leave.