Incapacity for Work Due to Disease or Injury in the Czech Republic

Introductory note

Contents

We can characterize the development of sickness and accidents rates occurred in the Czech Republic in the 1st half of 2006 the following way:

Under a slight higher number of insured persons by 0.8%, new notified cases of incapacity for work in total (i.e. due to disease plus accidents at work and other accidents) per 100 insured persons went significantly down from 40.34 in the 1st half of 2005 to 33.31 (+17.4% y-o-y).

On the other hand, the average duration per case of incapacity for work increased from 30.12 in the 1st half of 2005 to 34.43 in the 1st half of 2006 (+ 14.3 %).

In consequence of the above-mentioned changes (the degrease of the new notified cases and the increase of the average duration per case of incapacity at work) the average percentage of incapacity for work represented by the total indicator of sickness and accident rates decreased from 6.712 to 6.336 y-o-y, i.e. index 94.4.

After a considerable fall in the average percentage of incapacity for work in 2004, which was affected inter validity by the amendment to Act No 54/1956 Coll., on health insurance (in effect since 1 January 2004) that enacted a significant change in the calculation of sickness benefits, the average percentage of incapacity for work after returning slightly higher values in the 1st 2005 in the following period went down again on the level of the 1st half of 2004.

We can state that after the amendment the Act No 54/1956 Coll., the average percentage of incapacity for work decreased already for the three following half year’s periods.