Quarantine sickness finds its financial coverage for 2021 in Tax-labor law decree. Article 8 of Legislative Decree 146/2021, rewriting part of article 26, paragraph 5, of law decree 18/2021, allocates the funds to guarantee this service until 31 December.
Broad coverage from public to private
The resources are identified by the rewritten paragraph 5, which extends the coverage in favor of both the protections of paragraph 1 of article 26 (quarantine sickness of employees in the private sector) and for those of paragraph 2 (fragile workers in the public and private sector unable to carry out the activity in smart working).
This explains the reason why paragraph 2 of article 8 of the new Law Decree provides for the repeal of article 1, paragraph 482, of law 178/2020, which in turn set the funds allocated for the year 2021. , although limited to the protection of fragile workers.
Refund of indemnity averted
With the allocation of new resources, the strong concern that had invested employers after the message disappears Inps 2842/2021 of 6 August with which, in the absence of the refinancing of the quarantine sickness for this year, the obligation to repay the compensation already paid was feared.
The new paragraph 7-bis of article 26 of Legislative Decree 18/2020, on the other hand, intervenes on the content of the old paragraph 5, which also contemplated the possibility for the private employer (excluding the domestic one) registered in an INPS management that does not provide sickness insurance and which therefore directly bears the burden of the illness of its employees, to ask the social security institution for the refund of the benefits paid (during the quarantine or the absence of fragile workers), upon presentation of a specific request.
Reimbursements for each one-time worker
This possibility is now being redefined and expanded by providing, for each of the protected annuities (2020 and 2021), a one-off lump sum reimbursement for each worker of 600 euros, in the face of the fact that the employee cannot be employed with agile working methods. The reimbursement is subject to the presentation of a specific electronic request to INPS accompanied by a declaration certifying the periods for which the protections of article 26 are applicable. The effective operation of this renewed provision is left to specific instructions that will be provided by the INPS.
Funds have also been allocated for this special protection (although from the letter of the law only for 2021) which will be used by giving priority to chronologically prior events.
