OBJECTIVE AND MATERIALIZATION OF THE PROTECTION IN THE ILLNESS
Convergent Social Protection Scheme

» Illness is deemed to be all morbid and progressive situation, not resulting from professional cause or of act of the responsibility of a third party for which a compensation is due, that determines temporary incapacity for work

» The contingency illness protects the beneficiaries in the situation of absence to work on grounds of illness, substituting the work income lost through social benefits

» In the past, the civil service social protection scheme ensured this protection through labour legislation related to the regime of absences, maintaining to the public employee the right to compensation, during the periods of absence to work. But, the payment of the compensation assumed necessarily the characteristic of a benefit substitutive of the same, since that one is only due as a counterpart of the work effectively and actually performed. The legal regime did not distinguished the responsibilities and benefits resulting from the employment relationship from those which are specific of social security or social protection

» As from 01.01.2009, the employment contract in public functions regime, passed by Law no.59/2008, of 11th September and the law that defines social protenction of public employees, Law no. 4/2009, of 29th January, define in a specific and distinct way the two areas of law - labour and the social protection -, the employment contract in public functions regime predicts the loss of compensation during the absences on grounds of illness and Law no. 4/2009 determines that regulation of the social protection in the Convergent Social Protection Scheme shall provide for the grant of social benefits substitutive of that one in convergence with the Social Security General Scheme