2023-07-12 23:00:25
13 July 2023 Today at 01:00
The Minister of Health wants companies to reimburse sickness benefits during the second month of absence. The money thus saved would be used to finance a reduction in employer contributions.
Public Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) has put forward a proposal for employers to cover the second month of illness by way of launching the second phase of its work incapacity policy which he hopes to see completed before the end of this legislature, he announced in an interview granted to our editorial staff.
The first phase consisted of appointing “return to work coordinators”, provide more options for returning to work for long-term sick people and to make them responsible in this regard, to make responsible companies with a large number of long-term patients (there are some 450,000 in Belgium) and to educate doctors. They received sheets indicating the optimal duration of rest to prescribe to people suffering from a specific pathology.
“It should not be too long. In the case of low back pain, for example, it is often good to continue working, possibly in an adapted function. It is obvious that each patient is a particular case, but we want the Doctors are focusing more on what people can still do. We’re still implementing that, but I’m already thinking regarding phase 2.0.”
420 millions
d’euros
The assumption of responsibility for the second month of illness by employers would bring in 420 million euros to the State.
Make employers more responsible
According to the socialist, employers need to be made more responsible at the start of the absence period. “In Belgium, we only put a relatively short period at the expense of companies. For employees, they pay one month of guaranteed income, for workers two weeks. Then it is the health insurance that intervenes. Netherlands, employers are responsible for two years, but I think that goes too far,” says Frank Vandenbroucke.
He proposes that “companies now reimburse sickness benefits during the second month of absence”. And the minister added: “It’s significantly lower than a guaranteed income.”
“With my proposal, I meet these two requirements. The idea is not to pay these 420 million euros in the budget, but rather return them to companies. A small part of this amount will have to strengthen the incentive to rehire the long-term sick, but the biggest part will be returned to companies in the form of a general reduction in employer contributions“, explains the Minister of Health.
Thus, employers who put their long-term patients back to work will come out ahead and others will lose out.
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One in nine long-term patients return to part-time work
“This proposal does not improve competitiveness: we put back in one pocket what we took in the other.”
Peter Timmermans
CEO of the FEB
The FEB calls for everyone to take responsibility
Employers do not hear it that way. “We appreciate that Minister Vandenbroucke is looking creatively for a solution to the real problem of our economy”, reacts Pieter Timmermans of the FEB.
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Pieter Timmermans says he is ready to discuss the proposal, but only if the whole reintegration policy chain is involved. “If Minister Vandenbroucke wants to make employers financially responsible, he must do the same with employees, health insurance funds and doctors. Then, the waiting day should be reinstated (the first day of illness was formerly the responsibility of the employee, editor’s note) and he should then say to Solidaris and the Christian Mutuality: ‘I am withdrawing 420 million euros from your endowment and if you get results, you’ll get them back. I’m curious to hear their reactions.
At the political level, Frank Vandenbroucke’s proposal is far from being accepted. The CD&V sees an interest in this, since companies that conduct a good prevention policy would be rewarded. But liberals are skeptical. And then, it is not certain that the tax reform will see the light of day. The president of the MR, Georges-Louis Bouchez, reaffirmed this week that he would not accept any drawing whose half of the financing would not come from reforms of the labor market, which the PS refuses outright.
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