Abstract
The article refers to sick pay provided by the employer and to social insurance benefits payable in the event of a specific impact of an illness on earning capacity. It also refers to the Polish solutions adopted under the Rehabilitation Act, among other things, to the issue of reasonable accommodation. Attention has been also paid to the important issue of termination of an employment contract. The article points out that the unclear boundary between an illness and disability, as well as a broad interpretation of disability, may cause certain doubts in the field of labour law. It seems that currently too much risk is being shifted onto the employer. There is also no consistent approach to the issue of an illness and disability. On the one hand, efforts are being made to keep people with disabilities in the workplace and to activate them, while on the other hand, as a rule, working while receiving sickness insurance benefits is banned. This may involve the same person (with a disability) – anti-discrimination policy regulations will point to the need for reasonable accommodation to keep this person in employment. In this area, the employer is ‘punished’ for failing to provide reasonable accommodation and dismissing the employee. However, the situation is different from the point of view of sickness insurance benefits: the same person will often be forced into a passive attitude, under penalty of losing their entitlement to benefits, and will be described as a person ‘unable to work’.