Declaring an incapacity for work

Employers must declare their employees' periods of incapacity for work to the Social Security Centre (Centre commun de la sécurité sociale - CCSS).

There are several types of incapacity for work:

• sick leave or accident leave;
• leave for family reasons;
• maternity leave;
• exemption from work for pregnant women;
• adoption leave;
• family hospice leave to support a close relative at the end of life.

Persons concerned

Employers with paid employees.

How to proceed

Every month, the employer must declare their employees' periods of incapacity for work for the previous month. To do this, an employer can:

• submit an electronic declaration using SECUline ('DECMAL' procedure)

or

• submit the 'Notice of periods of incapacity for work' form.

Employers must report on the monthly declaration of incapacity for work:

• the periods of incapacity for work for the previous month;
  
• the exact number of hours of absence for their employees. Where applicable, the hours (of absence due to incapacity for work) that the employee should have worked on statutory or customary public holidays must also be included.

The hours claimed on the declarations of incapacity for work must never exceed the hours of work declared.

Overtime hours scheduled but not worked should not be declared.

Reimbursement

The Employers' Mutual Insurance (Mutualité des employeurs - MDE) will only reimburse wages advanced by the employer if the employees' periods of incapacity for work have been declared.

Employers must pay their employees' wages until the end of the calendar month during which the 77^th day of the incapacity for work falls, during a reference period of 18 consecutive calendar months, which on average is equivalent to a period of 13 weeks. Further information on the Employers' Mutual Insurance can be found at www.mde.lu.

The CCSS reimburses benefits on behalf of the MDE, by crediting the monthly account statement with the amount in question.

To receive automatic reimbursement for a given month, an employer must provide the CCSS with:

• the wage declaration, including the actual wage for the month in question and the hours of work corresponding to this wage;
• the periods and hours of absence declared and the type of the incapacity for work, using the declaration of incapacity for work.

These two conditions must be fulfilled by the employer to receive reimbursement.

The details of the reimbursement for each employee is sent to the employer or their authorised representative using SECUline ('CALCUL' procedure) or, for employers submitting paper declarations, by a statement containing all the data forming the basis of the reimbursement.

The reimbursement will be automatically blocked if an employer submits a declaration containing inconsistent data (e.g. a declaration of incapacity for work for a full month indicating more hours of absence than the hours of work shown on the wage declaration).

The reimbursement will only be released once the employer returns the schedule of working hours sent to them by the CCSS.

If an employee does not fulfil their obligation to submit their medical certificate to the National Health Fund (Caisse nationale de santé - CNS),
the CCSS will ask the employer to send a copy of the employee's medical certificate of incapacity for work to the following address:

CNS

Département prestations en espèces

L- 2979 Luxembourg

courriel : cit.cns[at]secu.lu

Reimbursement is made monthly by offsetting the amount against the total sum of the social security contributions requested by the CCSS. If the reimbursement amount exceeds the total contributions requested, it will be credited on the monthly statement, unless the employer expressly requests a reimbursement of the excess, using the 'Reimbursement of a credit balance' form.

Employers must declare all periods of an employee's incapacity for work, including those occurring during the period of continuation of the wage payment and also during the period of compensation from the CNS. More information on cash benefits can be found on the CNS website.

Calculation method

The reference base for the calculation of the reimbursement are the gross wage (base wage and supplements payable monthly in cash) plus the corresponding employer contributions for health, work accident and pension insurance.

The employer will be reimbursed 80% of this reference base for periods of normal incapacity for work (due to illness or work accident).

The employer will be reimbursed 100% for periods of incapacity for work due to illness or work accident during a probationary period (up to 3 months) and for periods of incapacity for work due to leave for family reasons or family hospice leave to care for a dying relative.

Calculation of the amount to be reimbursed:

• For periods reimbursed at 80%:

• For periods reimbursed at 100%:

Forms