The Ombudsman was made aware that in various regional delegations of the Educational Administration serious difficulties were being felt in scheduling medical appointments for sick leaves to be verified by the competent boards. These delays, in the view of the Ombudsman, may have important consequences, not only to the workers, but also by affecting the efficiency and economy of school management. In fact, after a period of 60 days of absence due to sickness, the Law determines that the illness of the worker has to be verified by a board of doctors, who decide whether the leave may last up to 18 months or, in case of prolonged illness, up to 36 months. While waiting for the medical board appointment to take place, and for a total period of 18 months, workers may be absent in sick leave, without any verification of the cause of absence. This may also lead to the need to hire new workers, in order to replace the absent ones, which bares increased costs. Moreover, workers on long-term care should be allowed to remain on sick leave for 36 months, as the law prescribes, regardless of the lack of verification by the competent authorities. Consequently, the Ombudsman recommended the adoption of the necessary measures to assure, as quickly as possible, the timely verification of sick leaves of absence; and stated that the public services responsible for controlling these leaves should be given clear guidelines in order to assure that workers who suffer from prolonged illness are not harmed by the Administration’s failure to promptly schedule the medical board appointments. • Recommendation No. 6/B/2016 Cases Q-2428/15, Q-6028/15, Q-1031/16 Entity addressed: Minister of Finance Date: 2016.12.19 Subject: Legal discipline on the recovery of amounts unduly paid to employees of the Public Administration Status: Partially accepted The Ombudsman proposed several amendments to the legal framework of the restitution of amounts unlawfully or mistakenly awarded by public employers to their employees, contained in the legal act that disciplines the financial administration of the State (Decree-Law No. 155/1992). Fundamental constitutional principles, such as the principles of legal certainty, good faith and protection of legitimate expectations, restrict the possibility of revoking 136 |