An employee who is incapable of working on account of sickness or an accident is required:
- on the very day of the adverse event, to give notice to the employer, personally or through a third party, orally or in writing; and
- on the 3rd day of his absence at the latest, to submit to the employer a medical certificate attesting to his incapacity for work from the 1st day of his absence from work and the foreseeable duration of his absence.
Consequently, the employee is protected against dismissal if he has informed the employer on the very day of the adverse event (without having provided a medical certificate on the first day) and if he submits a medical certificate attesting to his incapacity for work no later than the 3rd day.
The time limit of 3 days within which a sickness certificate is to be submitted to the employer starts to run from the first day of absence on account of sickness, that is to say not from the date of the report of sickness, which may have been belated, or from the date of the medical certificate.
The time limit of 3 days is a predetermined limit which cannot be extended, since the law draws no distinction based on the day of the inception of the sickness or on whether or not the time limit includes Sundays or other non-working days.
The 3rd day expires at midnight, so that the employee may submit his sickness certificate by fax or by email after office hours.