Sickness Benefits Act and salary: Your rights in case of illness

Questioner

Dear employee, I am on sick leave and yesterday I received the bill from work. I have a contract of 39 hours per week. Is the employer also obliged to pay me 39 hours of sick leave? I sometimes work 10 and sometimes 9 hours a day, 4 days a week. Now they have paid me only 8 hours for a working day. So now I have a deficit of about €200,- Because I have a 4 day work week. The company I work for is open 7 days a week. And because the opening hours are from 10:00 to 20:00, it was decided at the time to make four days of 10 hours. But now I only get paid for 8 hours when I'm sick. I understand that if I normally work 5 days of 8 hours, I will reach the correct number of hours. But I work 4 days of 10 or 9 hours. I believe that the employer should pay out the normal contract hours in case of illness, or am I wrong?

Lawyer

The employer must indeed pay based on the hours worked. By law, the employer only has to pay 70%. By collective labor agreement (usually concluded by the FNV) this can be more. There are also some employers who have arranged this in the individual employment contract. Your lower salary may therefore be caused by an error on the part of the employer (too few hours worked), but also by the law.

Questioner

Dear employee, My contract states that I am entitled to 100% continued payment due to illness. If a schedule has been made for an average of 150 hours, then shouldn't 150 hours be paid out? Kind regards RB

Lawyer

Yes, in that case you are also entitled to full payment of your normal salary. If you have any further questions/problems, I would refer you to a specialized employment law attorney.