Reference is made to the article entitled ‘Policy on sick leave “needed”’ (March 31) and the editorial ‘A healthy sick leave policy’ (April 5).

It must be pointed out from the onset that there was no change in sick leave policies or in the procedure for claims for sick leave benefits.

The only change which has come into effect is that, in order to simplify matters, the blue certificate does not need to be submitted to the Department of Social Security in cases where sick leave is less than three days.

The department does not process claims for the first three days of incapacity/sick leave and no reimbursement is ever effected to the employer.

Hence, the blue certificate need not be sent to the Department for Social Security since this certificate is but a claims form (N153) to kick-start the process of reimbursement to the employer.

The blue certificate is still mandatory for periods of sickness exceeding three days and the department still needs to receive this certificate to enable reimbursements.

The blue medical certifi-cate, however, still needs to be submitted to one’s employer according to the sick leave policy of that particular place of work.