Reintegration obligations for employers

Are you an employer in the Netherlands? If one of your employees falls ill, you need to take several steps. If one of your employees is ill for a longer period of time, you must work together on their reintegration.

Reporting illness

If you have an employee who reports ill, you must notify the company doctor or occupational health and safety service (arbodienst). If your employee is ill for longer than 42 weeks, you must notify the Employee Insurance Agency (Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen, UWV).

If your employee is ill for a longer period, together you must do all you can to ensure they return to work as quickly as possible in a responsible way. Your employee may return to their original position or another suitable position within your organisation, or even a position with another employer.

Return-to-work plan

As an employer, you are responsible for the return-to-work plan of your employee. You must call in a company doctor or health and safety service (arbodienst). You have to take a number of steps within a certain period of time to make sure your employee can get back to work as soon as is reasonably possible. To make sure of this:

• The company doctor or the health and safety service determine what your employee is still able to do and fill in the UWV's problem analysis (Probleemanalyse) when your employee has been ill for 6 weeks (in Dutch).
• Together with your employee you draw up an action plan (plan van aanpak) in the 8th week of illness. UWV has a format for this (in Dutch).
• You need to have progress meetings with your employee every 6 weeks. You must draw up a report of this.
• You have to maintain a return-to-work report which records all agreements and activities (in Dutch). This report includes, for example, the action plan, the reintegration report, and correspondence with your health and safety service or company doctor.
• You adjust your employees tasks, working times, workstation, and working hours if this is at all possible.

The step-by-step guide to employee sickness from UWV explains what you need to do after an employee becomes ill and when you need to do it.

Expert opinion

If your employee’s reintegration programme has ground to a halt, for example due to a difference opinion about the action plan, you can request an expert opinion from UWV. You will need this expert opinion if you ask a district court to handle the dismissal of your employee on the grounds of uncooperative behaviour or excessive absence due to the illness.

Employee obligations

Your employee must cooperate actively with their reintegration. This means they have to:

• discuss their health situation with the company doctor
• discuss their progress with you every 6 weeks
• work with you to draw up an action plan and approve this plan
• comply with the agreements in the action plan
• accept suitable work

Continued payment of salary

You must continue to pay your employee at least 70% of their last earned wages and holiday allowance. You have to do this for at the most 104 weeks (2 years). If you want to work longer with your employee on their reintegration, you can apply for extending their sick pay to UWV.

Reintegration takes at most 2 years

A return-to-work plan takes at most 2 years. After 2 years the UWV will assess if your employee is partially or fully occupationally disabled and whether the employee is eligible for benefits (WIA, WGA, or IVA). As long as the employee is employed by you, you must help them to find suitable work.

The reintegration process of your sick employee ends when:

• your employee is fully recovered, or
• their employment contract ends, or
• you dismiss your employee

Dismissal after 2 years of reintegration

Have you and your employee done everything you could do for 2 years to have your employee reintegrate in the workplace, but is your employee still unable to work? Then you may dismiss your sick employee.

If your employee cannot go back to work after 2 years and you have not done enough for their reintegration, you must pay their wages for 1 more year. And you cannot dismiss your employee until after that extra year.