Methodology - Incapacity for work

The Information System of the CSSA registers cases of temporary incapacity for work in Czechia, which were reported by a physician electronically by means of the application called in Czech “eNeschopenka” (before 2020, they completed a printed form called “Decision on the temporary incapacity for work”). 

Data of the CSSA do not include members of the Police of the CR, the Fire and Rescue Service of the CR, the Customs Administration of the CR, the Prison Service of the CR, the Inspectorate General of the Security Forces of the CR, the Security Information Service, the Office for Foreign Relations and Information, professional soldiers, persons serving a sentence of imprisonment (convicts) who work while serving a sentence of imprisonment, and persons accused that are working while in custody. 

Note: In January (as of 17 January) and February 2022, while testing employees for COVID-19, some workers were given a sickness certificate for quarantine or isolation in duplicate. In order to act expeditiously in dealing with them, both general practitioners and regional public health authorities were issuing sickness certificates. However, it is not possible to identify duplicate cases from the available source databases. This has an impact on the other indicators presented and derived from them (the number of calendar days of incapacity for work, the average percentage of temporary incapacity for work, average daily number of persons temporarily incapacitated for work). 

Average number of the sickness-insured persons includes all persons who were insured for sickness for at least one day of the reference period, whether compulsorily (employees) or voluntarily (own-account workers). 

New notified cases of incapacity for work are registered based on the reported beginning of the incapacity for work (a sick leave) of the sickness-insured persons (electronically by means of the application called in Czech “eNeschopenka” or by physical form). 

The number of days of incapacity for work is the sum of calendar days, during which the sickness-insured persons were incapacitated for work. 

The average duration of one case of incapacity for work – the indicator expresses how many calendar days of the incapacity for work there are on average per one new notified case of the incapacity for work. 

The average percentage of temporary incapacity for work – the indicator shows how many of one hundred of the sickness insured are on average incapacitated for work due to disease or injury every day. 

The average daily number of persons temporarily incapacitated for work – the indicator shows the number of the sickness insured who were on average daily absent at work due to incapacity for work in the given year. 

Incapacity for work includes cases for: 

Disease – it covers all cases of disease defined in International Classification of diseases and related health problems (ICD-10), quarantine and isolation. 

Occupational injury – shall mean damage to health or death of an employee provided that they occurred independently from the will of the employee by a short-term, sudden, and violent effect of exogenous influences while the employee was fulfilling work assignments or in direct connection with the fulfilment of these assignments. 

Other injury – other damage of health that caused incapacity for work, but was not classified as occupational injury.