Who and when can take a day off for medical examination?

Occupational Safety and Health

Current as of August 15, 2019

From January 1, 2020, employers are required to provide all employees with a paid day off work to undergo medical examination (Article 185.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). But many questions arise: in what order should an employer register dispensary days, can he refuse an employee a chosen date for visiting a clinic, does an employee need to confirm the legality of absence from work with a document from a medical institution, and what kind of document is it? The answers to these and other related questions are in our material. The article also provides samples of documents required for registration of a dispensary day.

How often is an employer required to provide medical check-out days?

The frequency of medical examinations depends on the age of the employee. The older he is, the more closely and often doctors study his state of health:

The current version of Art. 185.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation obliges the employer to allocate paid days for medical examination in the following order:

It turns out that for workers aged 40 years and older, an annual medical examination is provided, but this category of people can only count on a paid day to undergo it once every 3 years. This legislative gap has not yet been eliminated, but is under the control of the Government.

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Procedure for medical examination

The procedure for conducting medical examinations was approved by Order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation dated December 3, 2012 N 1006n. It has not yet entered into force, but regions have already developed their own medical examination programs based on it.

Clinical examination is carried out every three years in the following age periods: 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, etc. And disabled people of the Great Patriotic War, persons awarded the badge “Resident of besieged Leningrad” and recognized as disabled due to a general illness, work injury and other reasons, undergo medical examinations annually, regardless of age.

Additional medical examination of working citizens is carried out by medical organizations participating in the implementation of state guarantee programs for the provision of free medical care and licensed to carry out medical activities.

What does medical examination include? The list of examinations by medical specialists (paramedic or midwife), examinations and other medical measures carried out as part of the medical examination depends on the age and gender of the citizen. Thus, medical examination involves two stages.



The first stage - screening - is carried out for the purpose of primary identification and selection of citizens suspected of having diseases and includes:

1. Survey (questionnaire) to identify chronic non-communicable diseases and risk factors for their development.

2. Anthropometry (measurement of standing height, body weight, waist circumference, calculation of body mass index).

3. Measurement of blood pressure, eye tonometry (for citizens 39 years of age and older), determination of total cholesterol and blood glucose; ECG at rest (all at 21 years of age, then for men over 35 years of age, for women over 45 years of age); examination by a paramedic-midwife; fluorography of the lungs; mammography (for women 39 years and older); blood and urine tests, ultrasound of the abdominal organs (for persons aged 45, 51, 57, 63 and 69 years).

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4. Preventive appointment (examination, consultation) with a neurologist (for persons aged 51, 57, 63 and 69 years).

5. Reception (examination) by a local general practitioner (family doctor) of healthy individuals and individuals with a determined diagnosis of a disease that does not require additional examination at the second stage of medical examination.

At the second stage, further examination and clarification of the diagnosis of the disease, and preventive counseling take place. Also held:

— esophagogastroduodenoscopy (for persons over 50 years of age in the presence of “gastroduodenal” complaints identified during the survey and a family history of oncological diseases of the esophagogastric zone), etc.;

— examination (consultation) with an ophthalmologist, neurologist, surgeon, urologist, etc.;

— referral of the patient, according to identified indications, to a medical organization that provides specialized, including high-tech medical care, and for sanatorium treatment, individual or group preventive counseling (health school) in the department of medical prevention and health centers.

Based on information about the citizen undergoing medical examination, the health worker of the department (office) of medical prevention fills out the “Card of registration of medical examination (preventive medical examinations).” Information about the medical examination and its results is entered by the general practitioner into the health passport, which is issued to the citizen.

Sample application: what the employee writes and what the employer writes

From Art. 185.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation it follows that an employee is released from work to undergo medical examination on the basis of his written application. In this case, the date of the medical examination is chosen by the employee himself in agreement with the employer.

Before an employee chooses a date for undergoing a medical examination and writes a statement, it must be explained to him that unauthorized leaving work to undergo a medical examination without the consent of the head of the company is not permissible (Article 185.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

Sample application:

The employer can agree on the day chosen by the employee by placing a permitting inscription on his application:

If on the date specified in the application the employee’s absence is undesirable for production reasons, the employer issues a prohibitory inscription on the application:

The employer should not forget that he does not have the right to completely prohibit an employee from taking a day to undergo medical examination.

The application must be kept in the employee’s personal file. HR specialists should monitor the frequency of provision of medical check-out days to prevent abuse by employees.

Registration of two additional days off for a scheduled medical examination

In accordance with the new legislation, employees of an organization whose age is close to retirement have the right to annually take an additional two days off to undergo a routine medical examination. These days off are paid by the employer, like working days, at the expense of the social insurance fund. To receive additional time off you must:

• Agree in advance the calendar dates of the expected days of scheduled inspection with the manager. The organization does not have the right to refuse two additional days, but the dates must be agreed upon in advance without compromising the work process.
• The employee is required to write an application addressed to the general director (or manager) at least two weeks in advance with a request to provide him with two paid days off to undergo a routine medical examination.
• The basis for receiving this time off is a certificate of receipt of pre-retirement status, which can be obtained either by leaving an application on the pension fund website or on the government services portal. It can also be obtained at the “My Documents” MFC branch at your place of residence. The average time to receive a document is 10 working days.
• HR department employees, based on the application and certificate of pre-retirement status, draw up an order to provide additional days off to the employee. The General Director or any other authorized person signs this order and passes it to the employee for review and signature. Based on this order, payment for the provided days off occurs.

To undergo a medical examination, there is no need to agree in advance with a medical institution. Currently, all you need to do is find out the specialists’ work schedule in advance and get a bypass sheet.

Is it necessary to confirm the fact of undergoing medical examination and with what document?

The law does not require confirmation of the fact of undergoing medical examination, therefore the Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not mention supporting documents. An employee cannot be punished or fired for the absence of such a document.

However, for the employer, such confirmation is important - it will show whether the employee actually used paid time off work for medical research of his health. If an employee does not appear at the clinic on the agreed day for medical examination and does not show up for work, the employer has grounds to bring him to disciplinary liability for absence from the workplace without good reason. The risk of dismissal of an employee for absenteeism also increases (clause “a”, clause 6, part 1, article 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

A document confirming the completion of a medical examination is also the basis for payment for the employee’s unworked day. Without a supporting document, the days provided and paid for will essentially be additional paid days of rest that the employer provided to the employee on his own initiative.

Rostrud experts recommend that the employer establish in the internal labor regulations (internal labor regulations) the obligation of employees to document the fact of undergoing medical examination in accordance with Art. 185.1 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

A confirmation document can be a medical examination certificate issued at the clinic or a health passport.

What is included in the concept of medical examination?

In accordance with Art. 46 of the Federal Law of November 21, 2011 No. 323-FZ “On the fundamentals of protecting the health of citizens in the Russian Federation,” clinical examination is a set of measures that includes a preventive medical examination and additional examination methods carried out to assess health status (including determining the group health and dispensary observation groups) and carried out in relation to certain groups of the population in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.

In accordance with Art. 185.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, when undergoing medical examination, workers have the right to be released from work:

For the first time, persons aged 21 years receive the right to medical examination. Since, as mentioned above, the opportunity to undergo medical examination appears every three years, the next one occurs at 24 years old and so on. The older the citizen, the greater the number of events held.

An employee did not have time to undergo medical examination in 1 day - what should the employer do?

It may happen that an employee received a legal release from work to undergo a medical examination, but did not have time to go through all the doctors and conduct the full scope of necessary research during this time. What should an employee and his employer do in such a situation?

The law does not oblige the employer in this case to extend the employee’s leave of absence from work to complete all studies. The employee can use non-working time for this purpose - evening hours of working days and non-working Saturdays (Order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation dated March 13, 2019 No. 124n, Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated April 12, 2019 No. 440). Or take a few days at your own expense.

Payment for medical examination days

In order to pay for the days of clinical examination, Art. 185.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not require the employee to provide any documents confirming the fact of its completion (medical certificates, opinions, etc.). To pay for days of medical examination, only an application from the employee, as well as an administrative act of the employer (for example, an order) in any form is sufficient.

But in order to include payment for medical examination days in labor costs without any claims from the tax authorities, a certificate from a medical institution may still be required. The fact is that in accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, only justified and documented expenses incurred by the taxpayer can be recognized as expenses. Consequently, if the employer is unable to provide certificates indicating that his employees actually underwent medical examination, the Federal Tax Service will be able to charge him the corresponding expenses. So far there have been no precedents, but similar actions by local tax officials are possible.

In this regard, Rostrud previously allowed employers to demand from employees a certificate of medical examination. For these purposes, the employer can, for example, establish in the internal labor regulations the employee’s obligation to document (with an appropriate certificate) the fact that he has undergone medical examination in accordance with Art. 185.1 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

During the medical examination, the employee retains his average earnings (Part 1 of Article 185.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). The procedure for calculating average earnings is established in accordance with Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 24, 2007 No. 922. When calculating it, all payments in favor of the employee must be taken into account, including bonuses, allowances and additional payments.

When paying for medical examination days, it is necessary to take into account the restrictions established by Art. 185.1 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. So, if a pre-retirement person undergoes medical examination, then he is paid for two non-working days. All other employees are paid for only one day. Regardless of the actual number of days the medical examination took.

In addition, it should be taken into account that if employees under the age of 21 undergo a medical examination, then there is no question of medical examination (Order of the Ministry of Health of Russia dated October 26, 2017 No. 869n). Accordingly, such employees are not paid for medical examination days. Workers born in 1998 and older will be able to count on payment in 2020.

Let's sum it up

• The state, in caring for the health of citizens, changed the legislation, introducing from 01/01/2019 into Art. 185.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation provides for a guaranteed paid day off for medical examination.
• In this regard, employers have added new expenses and new responsibilities: they need not only to pay the employee for the day of his absence from the workplace, but also to collect a package of documents to confirm the fulfillment of the obligation under Art. 185.1 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

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How to get this day off? Write a statement?

There is no need to write an application. As lawyer and labor law expert Olga Eroshenkova , the employer will be notified in advance about the day of the medical examination, since an agreement will be concluded in advance between the organization and the medical institution, which will spell out all the details of the free medical examination. Moreover, the company itself must inform employees about the day of the medical examination.

“This agreement specifies the terms of medical examination. Sometimes it can be more than just one day. As part of the contract, a schedule of inspections on certain days can be drawn up. Moreover, employees can be divided into groups and agreed with them on what day is convenient for them to undergo a comprehensive examination. When this day is approved and agreed upon with the medical institution, the organization must notify its employees about the day of medical examination. This is the employer’s responsibility,” the lawyer comments.