Sick leave: The practicals

I'm sick. What should I be aware of?

The most important thing is that you follow these steps and answer messages and phone calls you receive from your leader. According to Norwegian law, employees have a duty to participate in sick leave follow-up. Failure to do so can result in sick leave pay from Nav being stopped.

There are a few points you should be aware of: 

• Cooperate with your manager as soon as possible to find solutions that prevent you from getting more sick

• Let your manager know what tasks you are still able to do

• Be prepared to do alternative appropriate or suitable work for a limited time, if you are unable to carry out your normal duties

• Participate in the development and implementation of a follow-up plan

• Participate in dialogue meetings

Gone home sick - short welfare leave 

Sometimes, you may become ill after arriving at work or during the workday. If this happens and you feel unwell enough to go home, you can use the welfare leave option called "Gone Home Sick."

• You may be granted leave for the rest of the workday if you are unable to work due to illness and therefore need to leave the workplace. This applies in cases of illness or other acute health issues that prevent the employee from performing their duties.

• The "Gone Home Sick" option should only be used if you arrived at work in a condition fit for work and performed regular duties at the start of the day. If you feel unwell and need to go home sick in the first 1 to 2 hours, talk to your leader and they will guide you to understand if you should use gone home sick, egenmelding or doctor's note.

• You must have worked in the company for at least two months before you can start to use "Gone Home Sick."

Follow-up of Gone home sick 

Our leaders are here to support you, and we want to create a work environment where everyone feels well and supported. As an employer we have a duty to follow you up, if you are not feeling well or have health challenges that affect your workday. 

Your leader will follow-up repeated absences to better understand your situation and find possible solutions together with you. 

In some cases your leader will request documentation from a doctor if “Gone home sick” is used frequently, or if the absence doesn't appear to be illness-related. 

Self certification

Self certification means that you, in certain situations and under certain conditions, call in sick without seeing a doctor. This means that a doctors notice is not required in these situations. 

✅ Some things to remember about self certification

• You can only use it if you have worked for Oda for at least two months 

• You only need to use your self certification on the day you have shifts registered

• You can use a maximum of 3 self certifications during a 16 day period

• The self certification can last for a maximum of 3 working days in a row and a maximum of 12 separate days in total per 365 days 

• If you don't have planned shifts in the weekend, you can use self-certification on Thursday, Friday and Monday if needed. This also applies to weekdays.
  
  

❌ Self certification cannot be used

• If the sick leave lasts more than 3 days

• When you are partially sick
  
  

If you have used 3 self certifications within a 16 day period- you will then:

• Either need a doctors notice or;

• Need to wait 16 days before you can use a self certification again.
  
  

If you need to use self-certification after a medical leave, two conditions must be met:

• The absence must be within the employer period.

• You must have resumed work for at least one day after the medically certified absence.

Loss of rights to use self-certifications:

If you spend the maximum self-certification days in a period of 12 months, or if the employer suspects that the absence is not due to illness, the employer can remove the right to use self-declaration leave in a period of 6 months. 

❗️If you are sick and your right to use self-certification leave is removed, the absence must be documented with a medical certificate from the first day of absence.

Doctor's notice

If you are sick you can also use a doctor's notice as documentation to call in sick as long as you have worked in Oda for at least one month. 

✅ Doctor's notice must be used if

• The sick leave lasts longer than 3 days; 

• You have used all self certification days (12 per 365 days)

❗Important reminder: A Doctor's notice must be submitted within 14 days, from the first day of absence, otherwise your right to sick pay lapses. 

• In certain special cases, a late doctor's notice may be back-dated. Your manager should discuss this with the People Advisor/Partner. 

In most cases it will be your GP (General Practitioner - fastlege) who will decide whether a doctor's notice is necessary for you. In some cases other care physicians can also issue a doctor's notice. 

When the GP/care physician has issued the doctor's notice, you will receive a text message or e-mail from NAV. You need to click on the link and log in to nav.no. Here you can approve the doctors notice. You can also see the relevant information around your sick leave once you have logged in to NAV's webpage. Please remember to ensure that the correct leader is listed on your profile, or change/add the correct leader. 

If you have received a doctor's notice from a doctor in another EEA country, it will also be valid as a sick note in Norway. Some foreign doctor's notices are digitized. If you can confirm your leave on nav.no, it will be sent to your employer just like a Norwegian sick note.

❗️If your doctor's notice does not appear in your NAV account, or if you're unable to log in, you'll need to send a copy of the foreign doctor's notice to NAV and your employer for every sick leave period. Here is a link to do it. If you don't submit this, Oda will not receive reimbursement for your sick leave.

The diagnosis in the doctor's notice is not visible for your manager or anyone else in Oda. 

Sick note from doctor in a foreign country

If you have received a doctor's notice from a doctor in another EEA country, it will also be valid as a sick note in Norway. Some foreign doctor's notices are digitized. If you can confirm your leave on nav.no, it will be sent to your employer just like a Norwegian sick note.

❗️If your doctor's note does not appear in your NAV account, or if you're unable to log in, you'll need to send a copy of the foreign doctor's note to NAV and your employer for every sick leave period. You also need to fill out the form "Egenerklæring for utenlandske sykmeldinger” at NAVs page. 

To be able to register your sick note correctly so you get sickpay you need to send a copy of the sick note from the doctor and the NAV-form “Egenerklæring for utenlandske sykmeldinger” to your manager and payroll. Please send the email to payroll@oda.com.

Here is a link to do it! If you don't submit this, Oda will not receive reimbursement for your sick leave.