Employee in quarantine or isolation – how to apply for sick pay or benefits?

Currently, a person subject to quarantine or isolation due to coronavirus is not required to provide a paper decision from the sanitary authorities (sanepid) to their employer or the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS), nor to have a medical certificate.
The information about the person being placed in quarantine or isolation, available in the PUE ZUS system, constitutes the basis for the payment of sickness allowance by the employer or sickness benefit by ZUS. This information is visible to the employer in the PUE ZUS system.

However, it may happen that this information is not visible in the PUE ZUS system. The absence of such information in the system does not exclude the possibility of applying for sickness allowance or benefit. In such a case, the person subject to quarantine or isolation should, within 3 working days from the end of quarantine or isolation, submit a special written statement to the employer or ZUS confirming the mandatory quarantine or isolation at home. The employer or ZUS will then request confirmation of the information contained in the statement from the sanitary authorities.

Nevertheless, an employee subject to quarantine or isolation should always contact their employer by phone or email and inform them of this fact. An employee in quarantine may agree with the employer to continue working remotely. The possibility of an employee in isolation – who is asymptomatic – performing work remotely is not clearly regulated in law, which results in different views on this matter.

If remote work is not performed, the employee is entitled to sickness allowance or sickness benefit. The condition for receiving sickness benefit from ZUS is to submit an application for its payment to ZUS. This application can be submitted via the employer through the PUE ZUS system. Upon receipt of the application, ZUS will verify the quarantine or isolation information based on appropriate data from the e-Health Centre’s IT system.

Moreover, since 3 November 2020, a person living with or sharing a household with a person infected with coronavirus is obliged to undergo quarantine. Such quarantine begins on the day the infected person receives a positive test result and ends 7 days after the infected person’s isolation ends. Sanepid does not issue a separate decision in this case. The basis for the payment of sickness allowance or benefit is a statement submitted by the insured person confirming the necessity to undergo quarantine. It is important that such a statement contains the following data:

1) the insured person’s full name,

2) the insured person’s PESEL number, if available,

3) the date quarantine begins and ends,

4) data regarding the person living with the insured or sharing the household who tested positive for coronavirus, i.e. full name and PESEL number if available,

5) the dates of commencing and ending mandatory quarantine or home isolation,

6) the insured person’s signature.

A template of such a statement is available on the ZUS website. If the sickness benefit is to be paid by ZUS, a separate application for benefit payment should be submitted (which can be submitted via the employer using the PUE ZUS system, as mentioned above). The employer or ZUS may request confirmation of the information contained in the statement from the sanitary authorities.

An employee may apply for care allowance if they care for a person in quarantine or isolation, i.e., a child up to 14 years old (or up to 18 years old in the case of a disabled child) or another family member. The basis for benefit payment in such cases is a special statement submitted by the caregiver (containing data analogous to the statement related to mandatory quarantine for a person living with an infected individual, but specifying the data of the person being cared for). A template for this statement is also available on the ZUS website. In this case as well, the employer or ZUS may request confirmation of the information contained in the statement from the sanitary authorities.