The number of medical leaves in Bulgaria dropped by 20 000 in April, announced on Thursday Hristina Mitreva, the Chief of the National Social Security Institute (NOI).

Mitreva participated in a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee for budget and finance, which considered changes in the Social Security Code.

“The anti-crisis measure that was discussed so much has started to work before even being accepted as a law. We are obliged to take steps to limit the abuses with medical leaves,” Mitreva said stressing that the 20 000 fewer medical leaves in April constitute a reduction of 7-8%.

According to the final draft of the law that was voted Thursday, during the first three days of the medical leave, the employer has to pay the employee 70% of the gross wage. After the fourth day, NOI will cover 80% of it.

At the moment, Bulgarian employers cover 100% of the daily pay of their employers during the first day of their medical leave, while NOI provides 80% coverage for the remaining days of the medical leave.

The change in the payment system for the medical leaves was one of the 60 anti-crisis measures adopted by the Bulgarian government at the beginning of April in an attempt to keep under control the emerging budget deficit.

It was triggered by the fact that the medical leave expenses of the state grew by BGN 20 M in January and February 2010 in comparison to the same period of last year.