The return-to-work plan

Your employee is obliged to cooperate in the return-to-work plan. However, as long as they are employed by you, you remain responsible for the process. This means that you monitor the sick-leave policy (‘verzuimbegeleiding’) and your employee’s return-to-work plan.

Use our step-by-step guide to employee sickness to find out which documents you need to arrange, and by when.

The main priority is to have your employee return to their original job. This should be done with the support of the occupational health physician (‘bedrijfsarts’), or the occupational health and safety service (‘arbodienst)’.

If this is not successful, you will need to explore opportunities for alternative work within your company. If necessary, you might be eligible to request compensation from UWV for workplace adjustments or assistance for your employee.

If you are unable to have your employee return to your own company, you and your employee should look for another company where they can be permanently employed.

You must start this process no later than 1 year after your employee’s illness. A return-to-work service provider company (‘re-integratiebedrijf’) can help you with this.

Returning to work within an external company on a temporary basis can be a step toward working for another employer. In this case, your employee remains employed by you, but works at another company for a set time. This is referred to as ‘detacheren’.

Both you and your employee can initiate this stage of the return-to-work plan. Placement can be repeated multiple times, or this step may end with your employee joining the new company as a permanent employee.

Please note: If your employee has a suggestion for alternative work, either inside or outside of your company, you must consider it. You can only reject your employee's proposals if you have a very good reason to do so.

If you feel your employee’s return-to-work plan is not going the way it should, or if you have questions about your employee returning to work, you can seek an expert opinion (‘deskundigenoordeel’) from UWV.

UWV will assess the return-to-work report to see if you have done enough to help your employee return to work. Our focus is on the support you provided during the return-to-work process, even if your employee was unable to return.

The return-to-work report must contain all the necessary documents and show the steps you have taken to help your employee return to work. Your employee needs to submit a copy of this report when they apply for a WIA benefit (an occupational disability benefit) after 2 years of illness.

The return-to-work report must include the following documents:

• the evaluation (‘probleemanalyse’). And if necessary, making a change to the evaluation (‘bijstelling probleemanalyse’)
• an action plan (‘plan van aanpak’)
• the first year evaluation (‘eerstejaarsevaluatie’)
• the current assessment by the company physician or the occupational health and safety service (‘actueel oordeel bedrijfsarts of arbodienst’)
• the final evaluation (‘eindevaluatie’)

Please note: If anything is missing or not fully documented in the return-to-work report, or if we feel you have not done enough to support the return-to-work process, you could be penalised with a sick pay sanction ('loonsanctie'). This is where you might be required to continue paying your employee's salary for a maximum of 1 more year after 2 years of illness.

You might be able to reduce the length of this sanction if you can meet the requirements outlined in the evaluation of the return-to-work report ('beoordeling re-integratieverslag').

The evaluation reports the areas for improvement in your employee's return-to-work process. You will be advised on what steps you must take to fix the shortcomings, and what is considered enough return-to-work effort.

Once you meet the requirements, you can notify us by submitting a request to reduce the length of your sick pay sanction (‘bekortingsverzoek’).