Employer is punished for insufficient reintegration efforts for safety-netters. Reintegration agencies are insufficiently engaged.

The government is coming up with a new bill : Bill to offset earnings with sick pay. This law abolishes the difference between so-called safety-netters and regular workers: An employee must make a hard case for all incapacitated workers to get a suitable reintegration find.

By far the best way to ensure appropriate reintegration is to engage a reintegration agency. There are reintegration agencies for all types of workers. For example, the reintegration agency CareerSolution specialises in reintegrating higher educated people.

What are the consequences for the employer in case of insufficient reintegration effort?

The main consequence is that after two years of illness, an employer will also continue to pay the wages of employees who were previously paid from the Sickness Benefits Act.

The UWV then takes care of special cases of illness such as pregnancies and those falling under no-risk policy in the Sickness Benefits Act. For these so-called safety-netters, the employer does not have to continue paying wages for two years. However, he must be able to prove that he is trying to reintegrate these disabled people back into the company. The moment the employer makes insufficient efforts to achieve this, the UWV may attach consequences under the new law. The moment insufficient efforts are made, the company may be forced to continue paying wages to these safety-netters for a year 70% after the 2-year period.

In addition, the government states that the employer will henceforth have to bear the costs if the employment contract is terminated during the sickness period of the safety-netter and the employer subsequently makes insufficient efforts to reintegrate them. This currently only applies to regular incapacitated workers.

The bill is not yet in force, it is before the Senate for approval