In early March, the government announced that the retrenchment deduction would be temporarily canceled. The measure would prevent people from going to work with cold symptoms and stay home instead.

Employees who are on sick leave can now seek compensation from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency for SEK 700 before tax. For self-employed persons, the amount is SEK 804.

Many have applied

On Wednesday, 706,682 applications for reimbursement for the deduction had been received by the Social Insurance Office.

One of the applicants is Pernilla Stenborg Nielsen, specialist nurse in psychiatry and workplace ombudsman for the Swedish Medical Association. She was at home one day with mild cold symptoms which then turned out to be allergy. The deduction for salary was just over SEK 1,300, which was offset by half of the compensation. If she had instead received sick pay from the first day, the compensation would have been 80 percent.

- You get a little sad because the threshold for being home now is so low, she says.

She does not think that the description of the remuneration as a waived retrenchment deduction corresponds to reality.

- If they say it is a waived deduction, then it should be 80 percent of the salary, this feels a bit like a scam, says Pernilla Stenborg Nielsen.

Compensation level a budget issue

The government tells SVT that the deduction has been abandoned, at least in its previous form. The fact that you receive a lump sum is because it is quickest to handle and the level of SEK 700 is based on what the government thinks the budget can handle, not the employee's income. You simply want money for something else too.

However, several unions and the central organizations SACO and LO are critical, both in how the measure is communicated and in the level of compensation.

- None of our professional groups can work from home. If you get too little in compensation then maybe you go and work even if you have a little cold and then you spread the epidemic, which was what you wanted to counter, says Torbjörn Johansson, contract secretary at LO.