Disability

In the event that one of your employees were to become disabled/incapable of working it would naturally be in your company's interest to have the employee return to full working capacity (or reintegrate), as soon as possible. An employee "on the sick" is never cheap. Here's why: during the first two years of his incapacity, the employer is required to continue to pay him a minimum of 70% of his wages. Depending on the content of your employment contract and/or any collective labour agreements, that percentage may even be higher.

Both the employee and the employer are jointly responsible for the employee's reintegration. The Gatekeeper Improvement Act (Wet Poortwachter) has established joint obligations for both employee as well as employer in case of illness.

For you, the employer, this would involve, e.g.: providing access to the company doctor, setting up and executing a reintegration strategy reporting the illness to the UWV and initiating annual reviews.

A failure or delay in complying with these obligations could entail serious financial implications. It may lead to the UWV, after a period of two years, declaring that insufficient reintegration efforts have been made by you, the employer. On that basis, the UWV may impose a fine upon the employer, requiring you to continue to pay the employee's wages for one more year.

The employee is also under certain obligations and is required to contribute sufficiently to his or her own reintegration. Should the employee fail to do so, the employer may suspend payment of wages in order to compel the employee to still meet his or her obligations.

Please contact Mr. M. van Westendorp, Mrs. B.J.C. Boogers-de Haan or Mr. N.Ch. Ellens for any questions/legal issues you may have regarding disability or reintegration obligations.

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