Download article in original language : LU0312101NFR.DOC
In November 2003, the Luxembourg government and social partners agreed on five structural measures aimed at tackling deficits in the budget of the country's sickness funds, which are expected from 2005 onwards. Most of the measures agreed are designed to stop employees taking sick leave without justification.
The industrial relations climate traditionally heats up in November each year when the government and social partners come together for the tripartite general meeting of the Union of Sickness Funds (Union des Caisses de Maladies, UCM), the umbrella body for Luxembourg's various sickness insurance funds. The purpose of the meeting is to fix a balanced budget (LU0111153N, LU9912118F and LU0012154F).
The very intensive UCM negotiations at the end of November 2003 focused on a predicted deficit of EUR 83 million, which will eventually be covered by a transfer from various pension funds that owe EUR 130 million to sickness funds, as a result of court rulings relating to benefit for physical disability.
Debates in 2003, unlike those in previous years, were not restricted to a simple balancing of the budget, with the government and the social partners agreeing on a series of five structural measures which seek to remedy an impending UCM deficit expected in 2005 and subsequent years.
- The doctor treating a case must, in respect of every insured worker, send the Social Security Medical Control Board (Contrôle médical) a reasoned opinion by the end of the second month of sickness in order to trigger, where necessary, the administrative procedure for recognising a worker as disabled.
- The sickness insurance scheme will bear the cost of sick pay for 52 weeks, as it has in the past, but this entitlement will apply over a reference period of 104 weeks, in order to prevent long-term sick employees from having an entitlement to 52 weeks’ sick leave after returning to work for only one day.
- Sickness benefit is currently payable for 52 weeks from the beginning of paid employment, and in future it is planned to pay it pro rata to the worker's contribution period in order to avoid abuse, particularly in the field of temporary agency work. A study will be undertaken to determine the extent to which this measure could be extended to workers employed on fixed-term contracts.
- A detailed specification of doctors' role in the process will be drawn up in cooperation with health professionals with a view to halting the numerous reported abuses of sickness absence. A similar exercise will be carried out respect of insured workers.
- In the medium term, the government is drafting an in-depth reform that could, in the longer term, lead to the merger of the nine current sickness funds. In particular, this plan could make substantial administrative savings.