All private-sector Employees covered by the Codigo de Trabajo are entitled to the 18-day sick-leave allotment. This includes:
Domestic workers and independent contractors are excluded.
Yes. Panama law does not impose a waiting period or probationary period before the sick-leave entitlement applies. A new hire who falls ill on their first day of employment is entitled to the full employer-paid period (up to 3 days for common illness).
The annual 18-day allotment is not prorated for partial-year hires. An employee hired in October receives the same 18-day allotment for the remainder of the year as one hired in January.
The days reported on the official CSS medical certificate. CifraHQ uses calendar days from StartDate to EndDate unless your company records working days only.
Confirm with your CSS liaison which day count standard the certificate uses. The most common practice is calendar days.
Once DaysUsedEmployerPaid reaches DaysAllotted (18 by default), the annual allotment is exhausted. For any subsequent certificate that year:
The balance resets on January 1.
Yes. The Incapacity Policy allows you to increase the Annual Days field above 18. This is appropriate if your collective agreement or employment contracts specify a higher allotment.
You cannot set Annual Days below 18 - this is the legal minimum under Art. 199 CT.
No. For occupational risk and occupational illness certificates, the employer waiting period is 0 days. CSS (or the occupational risk insurer) covers from day 1. No employer days are consumed, so DaysUsedEmployerPaid does not increase for these causes.
This means occupational incapacity does not reduce the employee's allotment for common illness later in the year.
Vacation and incapacity are tracked separately. CifraHQ does not automatically detect overlaps between a vacation request and an incapacity certificate.
If an employee falls ill during scheduled vacation, Panama law (Art. 57 CT) provides that illness during vacation interrupts the vacation period - the remaining vacation days are rescheduled. The incapacity certificate is recorded normally and the vacation balance should be adjusted manually or via the Vacation module.
Contact your labor attorney to confirm the correct treatment for your company's specific contract language.
Decreto Ejecutivo 1/1954 Art. 8 requires the certificate be presented within 48 hours of the incapacity start for absences beyond 2 days. CifraHQ does not enforce this deadline automatically - HR can record the submission date on the certificate for audit purposes.
Late certificates that are otherwise valid may still be approved. The approval decision is HR's responsibility.
Yes, if the incapacity occurred during the employment period. The certificate should be recorded and approved against the employee record. The balance deduction applies to the year in which the incapacity occurred.
Certificates for dates after the termination date should be rejected.
The most likely cause is that an earlier certificate for the same employee this year has not yet been approved. Only approved certificates reduce the balance. If a prior certificate is still in Submitted state, its employer days are not yet counted - the split on the new certificate will look overly generous until the prior one is approved.
Approve certificates in chronological order to keep the balance accurate.
Use the Ensure Current Year button on Payroll > Incapacity > Balances. This creates missing balance rows for all active Employees with the full annual allotment. It is safe to run at any time during the year.
If a specific employee is missing (e.g., hired after the reset ran), the Ensure Current Year button will also create their row.
Related: Overview - Policy Setup - Certificate Intake - Annual Reset
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