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

Introductory note

Contents

The sickness and accident rates in the Czech Republic showed the following trends in 2006 (as measured by the statistical report Nem Úr 1-02):

While the number of insured persons increased by 1.2% in comparison to 2005, newly notified cases of working incapacity in total (i.e. due to disease plus accidents at work and other accidents) per 100 insured persons decreased from 68.19 to 60.19 (-11.7%).

On the other hand, the average duration of a case of incapacity for work grew from 32.79 days in 2005 to 35.26 (index 107.5) days in 2006. This comparison makes clear that the trend of falling cases of incapacity for work and simultaneously growing duration of incapacity for work obvious in the previous years (except for 2005) continued also in 2006.

As the decrease in newly notified cases was faster than the rise in duration of incapacity for work, the average percentage of incapacity for work, which represents the total indicator of sickness and accident rates, fell from 6.126 to 5.814, i.e. down by 0.31 percentage points (index 94.9).

The percentage of incapacity for work in 2006 was thus lower than in 2004 (5.857), when the amendment to Act No. 54/1956 Sb., on Health Insurance (brought in on 1 January 2004) enacting a significant change in the calculation of sickness benefits, came into force. The future trend in the sickness and accident rates will show if the decrease in incapacity for work that occurred in 2006, following a moderate rise in 2005, is going to continue in next years.