An employee who is incapable of working is entitled to full maintenance of his wages and other advantages deriving from his employment contract until the end of the calendar month in which falls the 77th day of incapacity for work during a reference period of 12 successive calendar months (18 months as from 1 January 2019 pursuant to the Law of 10 August 2018).
In order to determine the amount of wages payable by the employer to an employee who is incapable of working on account of sickness during the period of “full maintenance” of wages, a distinction must be drawn between (1) an employee covered by a working schedule when the illness commenced and (2) a worker who was not covered by such a schedule.
- For an employee who fell ill and had a working schedule lasting at least to the end of the calendar month covering the incapacity for work, full maintenance of his wages and of the other advantages deriving from his employment contract means the basic wage for the month concerned plus any other ordinary premiums, supplements and increments to which the employee would have been entitled if he had worked in accordance with the working schedule laid down for him for the period of incapacity for work.
- For an employee who fell ill and did not have a working schedule lasting at least to the end of the calendar month covering his incapacity for work, full maintenance of his wages and of the other advantages deriving from his employment contract means the payment of a daily allowance equal to the average daily wage for the six months immediately preceding the commencement of the illness.
For employees who are paid on the basis of performance or for specific tasks or whose wages are determined as a percentage of turnover or are subject to significant variations, the average wage for the twelve preceding months is used as the basis for calculating the daily allowance to be paid.
If the employee has been performing his professional activity for his employer for less than six or twelve months, the reference period for determining the average is reduced to the period of actual employment.
Where the six or twelve months immediately preceding the commencement of the illness include periods of leave, sick leave, partial unemployment, weather-related layoff, accidental unemployment or involuntary short-time working, the remuneration for those periods will not be taken into account in calculating the sickness allowance.
The average daily wage is established on the basis of the gross monthly wage of the employee.
It is obtained by multiplying the gross hourly wage, which is calculated by dividing the gross monthly wage by 173 hours or by the normal monthly number of hours deriving from the collective agreement or the applicable employment contract, by the number of hours worked per day.
Formula for calculating the average daily wage
(gross monthly wage / number of monthly hours worked) x the number of hours worked each day
Examples
In the case of a full-time employee, who works 8 hours per day and has a gross monthly salary of € 4,000, the average daily wage of that employee will be € 185:
(4,000 / 173) x 8
≈ € 185
If during the reference period laid down for calculation of the sickness allowance or during the period of sickness definitive increments are added to wages by operation of law, the collective agreement or the individual employment contract, account must be taken of them, for each month, in calculating the sickness allowance.
For calculation of the allowance, no account is taken of non-periodical advantages, bonuses and performance payments, incidental charges occasioned by work or overtime.