illness

The illness eventuality protects employees in the illness situation, not resulting from any professional cause that determines the temporary impediment to perform work substituting the corresponding income.

The convergent social protection scheme (CSPS) shall ensure this protection through labour legislation related to absences and leaves, maintaining to the public employee the right to compensation (net), even though with possible deductions expressly provided for.

Such scheme applies to all employees with a public employment relationship, irrespective of the respective modality be appointment, employment contract or limited executive tenure, which are registered in the Public Employees’ Special Pension Scheme (Caixa Geral de Aposentações).

The protection’s right shall not be dependent upon registration, nor compliance with a waiting period, i.e, a minimum fulfilment of functions period and shall be materialized by the service/employer that pays the corresponding compensation.

The maximum period of absences due to illness is, as a rule, of 18 months which may be extended until 36 months when dealing with certain disabling illnesses. When the employee shows no conditions to resume his/her activity after such term has been elapsed he/she may request retirement due to disability if absolute and permanently considered unable to fulfil his/her functions from a medical point of view after confirmation of the Public Employees’ Special Pension Scheme medical board. If requirements for such retirement are not met, the employee is not willing to retire or the Public Employees’ Special Pension Scheme do not confirms the disability, then the employee will be under unpaid leave situation.

The employed persons’ social security general scheme shall be applicable to public administration employees with a public employment relationship, irrespective of the respective modality be appointment, employment contract or limited executive tenure, registered in Social Security Institutions. Such scheme materializes protection in the eventuality illness through the grant of illness allowance to the amount of 55% of the reference compensation when the temporary incapacity term is less than or equal to 30 days.

The reference compensation shall be based on the total gross compensations (with the exception of Holidays and Christmas allowances) during a period of 6 months prior to that of the disability for the performance of work (the first 6 months of the last 8 calculated as from the prior month to that of the disability).

The illness allowance percentage shall increase to 60%, if the disability shall exceed 30 days and be lower than 90 days, to 70% when disability has duration higher than 90 days and lower than 365 work days and 75% when be higher than this last period. The allowance may be increased by 5% according to the reference compensation amount (equal or lower than 500) and the household composition (namely, being composed of 3 or more descendants aged lower than 16 years or eligible for receiving the disability allowance).

The right to the allowance shall be dependent on the compliance with a waiting period, i.e., a minimum contribution period for the social security institutions (six calendar months, followed or not) that may be completed by the fulfilment of functions period under the convergent social protection scheme, provided that it is not overlapped.

In order to be entitled to illness allowance the employee shall still have complied with the professionalism index (consisting of having fulfilled his/her functions, at least 12 days in the first four months of the last six ones).

The allowance is granted for the maximum period of 1095 days (3 years). Once that period of time has been elapsed without the employee being under conditions of resuming activity, he/she acquires the right to a provisional disability pension within the scope of disability protection and shall appear in person before the social security institutions competent services for assessment of the disability situation. If such services shall recognize a permanent disability, which prevents the employee to earn, in his/her profession, more than 1/3 of the compensation corresponding to its normal performance or presume that the employee will not be able to recover the ability to earn more than 50% of said compensation, in the following 3 years, the disability pension shall be confirmed. Otherwise, the right to provisional pension shall terminate from then on.