Employer's reintegration obligation: What are the rules?

Questioner

When or in which situation does an employer not have to offer or possibly create suitable work under the Improved Gatekeeper Act? Thanks for your answer

Lawyer

If you have been ill for 6 weeks, the occupational health and safety physician or company doctor will make a problem analysis. They will look at what activities you can still do and what the bottlenecks are. The employer is obliged to do as much as possible to help you reintegrate. So suitable work with your current employer, or perhaps with another employer. A plan of action will set out what you can still do (and not what you cannot do). There is no ready-made answer to your question, it depends on, among other things, the extent of your illness, your function, and what you can actually still do. The problem analysis and the plan of action in your reintegration process must then show what you and your employer want to work towards in a certain period. If you are still ill after 2 years and it appears from the reintegration report that you and your employer have taken sufficient reintegration measures, but unfortunately it has not been possible to get you back to work, you may be able to apply for a WIA benefit. The UWV will therefore first assess whether the reintegration obligations have been met. If your employer, according to the UWV, has not taken sufficient measures, then it is possible that the UWV will impose a wage sanction on your employer, and your employer is certainly not looking forward to that. In any case, there are no ready-made situations in which an employer does not have to offer or create suitable work. It will also be examined whether you can possibly perform certain work for another employer, in which case you do not even have to leave your current employer immediately. Well, there are situations to think of and they are not pleasant. For example, if someone has become completely paralyzed, then there will be few possibilities to reintegrate.

Questioner

Thank you for your answer. I should have made my question more specific. I mean when or in what situation does an employer (at the employer's own, track 1) not have to offer suitable work?

Lawyer

Then the answer will not be different. That really depends on all the facts and circumstances. If the problem analysis and plan of approach show that you can do little to nothing during the track 1 process, then the activities for reintegration within the company where you work will come to a standstill. If it turns out that you are unable to work, then that will have to be evident from the evaluations. It may therefore be that you are completely unable to perform any work and that the employer has exhausted all possibilities to have you reintegrated. The UWV will ultimately assess whether there were indeed no more reintegration possibilities.