Incapacity for Work due to Disease or Injury in the CR

Introductory note

Contents

Based on the results of statistical survey Nem Úr 1-02, the sickness and accident rates in the Czech Republic in the year 2007 can briefly be characterised as follows:

While the number of insured persons increased by 2.2% year-on-year, newly notified cases of incapacity for work in total (i.e. due to disease, accidents at work and other accidents) per 100 insured persons was down from 60.19 in 2006 to 59.31 (i.e. by 1.5%). This confirmed the trend of the 1st half of 2007.

The average duration per case of incapacity for work decreased from 35.26 days in 2006 to 34.58 days (i.e. by 0.7 days); it is still high, however (in the long-term comparison, it had increased since 1990 when it was 18.39 days).

In consequence of the relative decrease of newly notified cases and the decrease of the average duration of incapacity for work, the average percentage of incapacity for work represented by the total indicator of sickness and accident rates decreased from 5.814 in 2006 to 5.619 in 2007 (index 96.6).

In the year 2007 there were 258 285 insured persons absent from work due to incapacity for work because of disease or injury in the Czech Republic, of which 232 168 due to disease, 9 865 due to an accident at work and 16 253 due to other accidents.

The graph below shows the average percentage of incapacity for work over last four years (including figures for the first half years). The graph reveals that the percentage of incapacity for work in the first half of a year was always higher than that for the whole year. This applies also to the long-term view and it is among other things affected by a higher sickness rate in the first months of a year.




In the periods observed the percentage of incapacity for work was the highest in the 1st half of 2005 when, after a marked decrease in 2004 due to changes in the calculation of sickness benefits (amendment to Act No 54/1956 Sb., on health insurance, in effect since 1 January 2004), this indicator increased to 6.712%. In the year 2006 it was down from 6.336 in the 1st half-year to 5.814 in the whole year. In the 1st half of 2007 there was a slight increase; however, as the graph shows, the figure was lower (5.941%) compared to the two previous half years. In the year 2007 the percentage of incapacity for work was the lowest over the four-year period.