Jeddah, Feb 10: Authorities in the Kingdom are set to implement new rules to give the right “treatment” to employees who have been misusing the provision of medical leave by producing bogus sick leave certificates in collusion with some medical practitioners.
What is more, doctors indulging in such unethical practices will be seen as the bigger partner in the crime, attracting harsher penalties than the employees, under the new rules and regulations.
This phenomenon of employees bunking office citing illness backed with a certificate, more so in the government sector than private enterprise, will become a thing of the past once the new rules are introduced sometime next month.
Under the new rules, scrutiny of sick certificate will no longer be an administrative procedure, but will in fact be a prescribed statutory procedure. Bureau of Investigations and Prosecution will file cases against such errant employees, and the medical practitioner will be held more accountable than leave-seeking employees.
Under the new rules, an employee caught producing a bogus certificate will be awarded punishment of three months and SR30,000 as penalty. In the case of the doctor who issued the certificate, it could be up to one year in prison and a penalty of up to SR100,000 or both.
“The new rule promotes ethical practice, prevents abuse or violation of sick leave norms and reduces productivity loss at workplace,” commented Mohammed A. Shatta, personnel manager at a leading company in Jeddah.
Speaking to Arab News, he said: “We receive dozens of medical certificates every day seeking exemption from deduction of salaries for absence. Most certificates are genuine but the reasons or the recommended duration of leave are suspect.”
He explained: “Once we detect the trend, we approach the hospitals concerned, and the occurrence goes down, but only for a while.”
He said that as per regulations, a specialist doctor from a private hospital can recommend sick leave from a day to three days while a consultant can grant sick leave up to five days. As for private clinics, their doctors are not allowed to recommend sick leave for more than a day.
Comments
Add new comment