Calculating the base for sickness benefits is one of the most important aspects of payroll in a company. Particularly complicated situations arise when an employee's work calendar includes unexcused absences. Employers must then apply special procedures for supplementing pay, which affect the final amount of benefits paid by ZUS (Social Insurance Institution).
Unexcused absences of employees are a problem faced by many companies in Poland. They affect not only the organisation of work but also how the sickness benefit base is calculated. A proper understanding of how pay is supplemented in such situations is crucial for a well-functioning HR and payroll department.
The benefit base – key rules
The Act of 25 June 1999 on cash benefits from social insurance in the event of sickness and maternity (the Sickness Benefits Act – ustawa zasiłkowa) regulates in detail how the sickness benefit base is calculated. Under the applicable rules, the sickness benefit base of an employee is the average monthly pay paid for the 12 calendar months preceding the month in which the incapacity for work arose.
The sickness benefit base is calculated on the basis of the average monthly pay for the 12 calendar months preceding the month in which the incapacity for work arose. If the employment period is shorter, only full calendar months of sickness insurance are taken into account
Where the incapacity for work arose before the end of the 12 calendar months period, the sickness benefit base is the average monthly pay for the full calendar months of insurance. This rule is particularly important for new employees who have not yet worked a full year at the company. If the first month of work is incomplete, the rules on pay for the part of the month worked also come into play.
The sickness benefit base for one day of incapacity for work is 1/30 of the pay that forms the benefit base. The Sickness Benefits Act specifies that the sickness benefit base is determined taking into account pay received from the contribution payer during the uninterrupted period of sickness insurance in which the incapacity for work arose.
The daily sickness benefit base is 1/30 of the monthly benefit base. This means that every month is treated as having 30 days, regardless of the actual number of calendar days in it
The mechanism for determining the benefit base is designed to provide a fair and proportional system of benefits that takes into account the employee's actual earnings in the period before the illness. As a result, the amount of sickness benefit reflects the insured person's actual pay level.
Employee obligations when absent from work
The Labour Code (Kodeks pracy) imposes clearly defined obligations on employees to inform the employer about an absence from work. The employee must notify the employer of the reason for the absence and its expected duration no later than on the second day of absence from work.
The employer may be notified of the reason for the absence in the manner set out in the internal labour regulations applicable at the employer. If there are no such internal rules, the notification may be made personally or by another person in the following ways:
- By telephone
- Using another means of communication
- By post
- In person by the employee or an authorised person
- Using electronic messaging apps
Failure to meet the notification deadline may be excused by special circumstances that prevented the employee from meeting the obligation on time. Such circumstances include being bedridden by illness with no members of the household present, or other random events
An absence from work may be excused on the basis of various documents and statements. The most important way of excusing an absence is a medical certificate, which is the basic document confirming the employee's illness. In addition, the employee may present a decision of the competent state sanitary inspector issued under the rules on combating infectious diseases in the event of isolation for reasons provided for in those rules.
In special cases concerning childcare, the employee may submit a statement that they had to personally care for a healthy child under 8 years of age because of the unforeseen closure of a nursery, children's club, preschool or school. Similarly, if a nanny or day carer falls ill, the employee's statement together with a copy of the medical certificate certified as a true copy of the original is required.
An employee may also excuse an absence on the basis of a personal summons to appear before state authorities as a party or witness in proceedings. The summons must include a note confirming that the employee appeared
Types of excused absence from work
Labour law sets out in detail which periods of absence from work are considered excused. This classification is crucial for correctly calculating the benefit base and for determining whether pay needs to be supplemented.
Excused periods of absence from work include above all periods of the employee's illness confirmed by an appropriate medical certificate. Equally important are periods of annual leave (urlop wypoczynkowy), which under labour law every employee is entitled to and which is their inalienable right.
| Type of absence | Effect on pay | Required documents | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illness | Sick pay, then sickness benefit | Medical certificate | Benefit from the 34th day of illness in the year (from the 15th day after turning 50, Art. 92 of the Labour Code) |
| Annual leave | Full pay | Leave request | No supplementing needed |
| Maternity leave | Maternity benefit | Documents submitted to the benefit payer | Social insurance benefit |
| Carer's leave | No pay | Employee's request (Art. 173(1) § 4 of the Labour Code) | Benefit base must be supplemented |
Excused absences also include leave related to parenthood, including maternity leave, paternity leave, parental leave (urlop rodzicielski) and leave on terms of maternity leave. These periods are specially protected by labour law and have their own specific settlement rules.
- Time off to look for a job during the notice period
- Time off to care for a child under 14 years of age (2 days or 16 hours per year, Art. 188 of the Labour Code)
- Carer's leave (5 days per year) to care for a family member or a person in the same household who needs care for serious medical reasons
- Time off due to force majeure in urgent family matters (2 days or 16 hours per year, Art. 148(1) of the Labour Code)
- Periodic and follow-up medical examinations ordered by the employer
- Occupational health and safety training
- Participation in a meeting of the occupational health and safety committee
Annual leave is treated in the same way as a period of work when determining the sickness benefit base. This means that pay for annual leave does not need to be supplemented in benefit calculations
A special category is absences related to civic duties, such as appearing before a court, prosecutor's office or other state authorities. These absences are excused on the basis of the relevant summonses containing confirmation that the employee appeared.
Time off work granted by the employer
The Regulation of the Minister of Labour and Social Policy of 15 May 1996 on the method of excusing absence from work and granting employees time off work regulates in detail the situations in which the employer must give an employee time off. It is important to distinguish between paid and unpaid time off, as this directly affects how pay is supplemented.
Time off work is due when the employee must appear before an authority competent in matters of the general duty of defence. This covers situations related to alternative military service, military qualification or other duties under the rules on the general duty of defence.
- Time off to appear before a public administration authority
- Time off to act as a court or out-of-court expert witness
- Time off to take part in a meeting of a conciliation committee as a member, party or witness
- Time off for medical examinations and vaccinations
- Time off in connection with proceedings conducted by the Supreme Audit Office (NIK)
- Time off to take part in rescue operations
Some types of time off work allow the employee to keep the right to pay, while others are unpaid. This difference is crucial when determining the sickness benefit base
Time off related to giving blood is particularly important. It is paid (§ 12 and § 16(1) of the regulation), and an honorary blood donor is entitled to time off work on the day of donation and on the following day (Article 9(1)(1) of the Act on public blood service). Time off for teaching classes is regulated differently (up to 6 hours per week or 24 hours per month, § 13) – the regulation does not provide for the right to pay for that time.
Occasional time off covers the time needed to take part in family events such as the employee's wedding, the birth of a child or the death of a family member. This time off varies depending on the degree of kinship and the specific life situation.
Employees who are members of a supervisory board operating at their employer are entitled to time off for the time needed to attend meetings of that board (§ 14). The regulation does not provide for the right to pay for that time (§ 16(1) does not list it), unless the rules applicable at the employer provide otherwise
How pay is supplemented for benefit purposes
Supplementing pay for the purpose of determining the sickness benefit base is a complex process that requires a careful distinction between different types of absence. The key rule is that a period of annual leave should be treated in the same way as a period in which the employee actually works.
If in a given month the employee only worked and took annual leave, the pay does not need to be supplemented at all. Annual leave is treated as equivalent to work, and the pay for that period fully counts towards the benefit base.
Supplementing pay becomes necessary when, in any month included in the benefit base, the employee did not receive full pay because of absence from work for excused reasons (e.g. illness) but worked at least half of their required working time (Article 38(2)(2) of the Sickness Benefits Act). Months in which, for excused reasons, the employee worked less than half of the required working time are excluded from the base (Article 38(2)(1)).
The consequence of an unexcused absence is not only that no pay is due for that period but also that the employer may impose the disciplinary penalties provided for in the Labour Code
Where the employee does not excuse an absence from work, the pay actually received in the given month is used to calculate the benefit base, without supplementing it for the days of unexcused absence. This means that when calculating pay for the full month, the days of unexcused absence are not taken into account.
Partial supplementing of pay is also possible and is used in mixed situations. If, in a month included in the calculation of the benefit base, the employee had both unexcused and excused absences, a special calculation procedure must be applied.
A manufacturing company employed a worker who in March had 3 days of annual leave, 2 days of sick leave and 1 day of unexcused absence. When determining pay for the full month for the benefit base, the days of leave were treated as working days, pay was supplemented for the days of illness, while the day of unexcused absence was left out of the number of days the employee was required to work.
Special cases of supplementing pay
In accounting practice you may come across a variety of situations requiring an individual approach to supplementing pay. Cases where an unexcused absence lasts a significant part of the working month are particularly complicated.
If an employee has an unexcused absence in a month lasting at least half of their working time, the pay actually paid for that month should be used, without any supplementing. This rule is intended to prevent a situation where the benefit base would be set on the basis of pay significantly higher than the employee's actual earnings.
Even in the case of long unexcused absences of a full-time employee, the benefit base cannot be lower than the minimum wage reduced by 13.71% (Article 45(1) of the Sickness Benefits Act)
The Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 11 September 2025 on the minimum wage and the minimum hourly rate in 2026 (Journal of Laws – Dz.U. 2025 item 1242) provides that in 2026 the minimum wage is PLN 4,806 and the minimum hourly rate is PLN 31.40; from 1 January 2027 they will be PLN 4,950 and PLN 32.30 (Dz.U. 2026 item 1213). The lower limit of the sickness benefit base for full-time work is therefore PLN 4,147.10 in 2026 (PLN 4,806 − 13.71%) and PLN 4,271.35 from 1 January 2027.
When determining the components of the sickness benefit base, all pay components that are subject to social insurance contributions must be taken into account. The most important components are:
- Base salary, the basic element of pay
- Pay for annual leave, treated in the same way as pay for work
- Discretionary bonus in the amount actually paid to the employee
- Overtime pay included in full
- Night work allowance included in the pay base
- Pay for downtime for reasons beyond the employee's control
All pay components subject to social insurance contributions count towards the sickness benefit base. The exception is components to which the employee retains the right during the period of receiving the benefit, if they are paid for that period (Article 41(1) of the Sickness Benefits Act)
A practical example of calculating supplemented pay
To better understand how pay is supplemented in the case of unexcused absence, it is worth analysing a specific example. Consider the situation of Mr Jakub, who in February 2026 had both excused and unexcused absences from work.
Mr Jakub, employed full-time, was on sick leave for 5 working days from 2 February to 6 February 2026. In addition, on 13 February 2026 he did not come to work for unexcused reasons. In February 2026 the employee was required to work 20 working days, but actually worked only 14 days.
For February Mr Jakub received pay, after deducting social insurance contributions, of PLN 4,100. This pay naturally did not include the day of unexcused absence, for which the employer does not pay. This day is reported with a separate code in the ZUS RSA personal report.
- Daily pay: PLN 4,100 ÷ 14 days = PLN 292.86
- Number of days to supplement (excluding the unexcused absence): 19 days
- Supplemented pay: PLN 292.86 × 19 days = PLN 5,564.34
- Comparison with the minimum benefit base in 2026 (applied to the whole base, not to a single month): PLN 5,564.34 > PLN 4,147.10
- Final amount included in the benefit base: PLN 5,564.34
In this example, pay was supplemented for the days of sick leave, but the day of unexcused absence was not taken into account. The days of illness were treated as a period requiring pay to be supplemented
The procedure for supplementing pay requires particular care in distinguishing between different types of absence. Days of illness, even though the employee did not work, are treated as periods requiring pay to be supplemented for the purpose of the benefit base.
Consequences of unexcused absences
Unexcused absences of employees have a number of consequences that go beyond simply not paying for the absence. The Labour Code allows the employer to impose various disciplinary penalties on such an employee, the severity of which depends on the frequency and length of the absences.
The disciplinary penalties provided for in the Labour Code are a warning (upomnienie), a reprimand (nagana) and a fine (kara pieniężna). A warning is the mildest form of penalty and serves as a caution. A reprimand is a more severe penalty that may affect the assessment of the employee and their further career.
A fine for each day of unexcused absence cannot exceed one day's pay, and fines in total cannot exceed one tenth of the pay due to the employee after the deductions referred to in Article 87 § 1 points 1–3 of the Labour Code (Article 108 § 3 of the Labour Code). This penalty has a direct financial impact on the employee and is a tangible consequence of inappropriate behaviour.
In the most serious cases of systematic unexcused absences, the employer may terminate the employment contract with notice or apply disciplinary dismissal without notice
Disciplinary dismissal is the most severe penalty in labour law and may be applied in the event of a serious breach of basic employee duties (Article 52 § 1 point 1 of the Labour Code). The Labour Code does not set a number of days of unexcused absence from which disciplinary dismissal may be applied – what matters is whether there was a serious breach, and the contract cannot be terminated after 1 month from the employer learning of the circumstance (Article 52 § 2 of the Labour Code).
An employee of a logistics company did not come to work for 5 days without excuse and did not contact the employer. After returning to work he did not present any documents excusing the absence. The employer imposed a fine on him and then started the disciplinary dismissal procedure because of a serious breach of employee duties.
Long unexcused absences also reduce the sickness benefit base, which may have long-term financial consequences for the employee. A lower benefit base means lower sickness benefits in the future.
Effect on the social insurance system
Unexcused absences from work also have a significant effect on the functioning of the social insurance system. A lower benefit base resulting from unexcused absences may lead to a situation where the amount of sickness benefits does not match the employee's actual standard of living.
The social insurance system is designed to provide employees with adequate financial protection in the event of incapacity for work due to illness. The pay supplementing mechanism is intended to ensure that the benefit base reflects the employee's actual pay level.
Employers must keep detailed records of all employee absences, which makes it possible to correctly determine the sickness benefit base in line with the applicable rules
Correct application of the rules on supplementing pay in the case of unexcused absences is crucial for maintaining balance in the social insurance system. Too liberal an approach could lead to abuse, while too restrictive an interpretation of the rules could infringe employees' rights.
ZUS inspections may include checking whether the sickness benefit base was determined correctly, including whether the procedures for supplementing pay were applied properly. Employers must be prepared to present detailed documentation justifying how the benefit base was calculated.
