Certificate of Disability

(sick-leave certificate), in the USSR, a document certifying the temporary loss of ability to work by an industrial worker, office employee, or kolkhoz member. It serves as the basis for determining and paying benefits for temporary disability. The procedure for issuing a certificate of disability was established by a directive of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and the People’s Commissariat of Health of the USSR and was ratified by the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR on Aug. 14, 1937 (with subsequent modifications and additions).

Certificates of disability are issued by physicians of medical institutions under the Ministry of Public Health of the USSR or under other government departments at the place of residence or by physicians in the medical institutions to which the workers of an enterprise or office have been assigned. The certificates may not be issued in polyclinics and hospitals requiring payment. If the temporary disability occurs outside the place of permanent residence and work—for example, on business trips or in houses of rest—the certificate is issued at the place of temporary residence and is confirmed by the chief physician of a medical institution. In localities where there are no practicing physicians and also on ships the right to issue such certificates may be granted to a medical assistant or the head of a medical station with subsequent review by the head of a medical district.

A certificate of disability is issued on the day on which disability is established. If inpatient treatment in a hospital or clinic is required, it is issued upon discharge. If the ability to work was lost as a result of illness or injury, the certificate is issued on the day the disability is established (except in cases of inpatient treatment) and remains in effect until recovery or until invalidism has been determined. If the injury occurs at home, a certificate is issued for the first five days of disability that serves as the basis for release from work on those days. The physician has the right to issue a certificate of disability on his own authority for not more than three days at a time and for not more than six days in all during a given illness or injury. A certificate of disability may be extended beyond that period by the attending physician only with the concurrence of the chief physician or the consultation commission of the medical institution.

Certificates of disability are also issued during pregnancy and parturition, for quarantine purposes, during sanatorium-health resort treatment, and for the care of a sick family member (for a period of up to three days). Between Dec. 1, 1973, and Dec. 1, 1974, a new procedure for issuing certificates of disability was introduced for the care of sick children. Certificates for the care of children under seven years of age are now issued for a period of up to ten days, and certificates for the care of children under 14 years are granted for up to seven days.