Czech constitutional court reverses key component of government health reforms

The Czech Constitutional Court has overturned a crucial component of the government’s healthcare reforms, ruling that unpaid sick leave must be abolished. As a result of recent government reforms, employees, rather than receiving the previous 40% of pay for the first three days away from work, received nothing. The government argued that the change was designed to reduce relatively high levels of illness-related leave taken by Czechs. However, in its ruling, the court found that the changed legislation was unconstitutional in that it failed to guarantee an employee’s right to security in times of illness. The court has declared that by June 30, the law must be reversed. This ruling comes as a part of a wider courtroom showdown in which the opposition Social Democrats have challenged the constitutional legality of many of the proposed reforms undertaken by the government such as fees for doctor’s visits.