An employer must pay an employee’s salary for two years during illness. During this period, both employer and employee must make efforts for reintegration. When the UWV determines that the employer’s reintegration efforts were insufficient, a so-called wage sanction can be imposed. This means that the employer must continue paying the employee’s salary for a maximum period of 52 weeks and reintegration must also continue.
A recent ruling shows that an employer, in addition to the wage sanction, also risks being ordered to pay fair compensation if they fail to meet their reintegration obligations. In this case, the employer had to pay fair compensation of €200,000 on top of the already paid transition allowance of €74,000.
What Happened?
The employer, Aldi, had received permission from the UWV in May 2019 to terminate the employment contract of a long-term sick employee. The employee was bullied and intimidated at work by her supervisor. Aldi had previously already received a wage sanction from the UWV because they were too late in implementing the occupational physician’s advice.
However, the former employee did not let it rest. She believed that Aldi had acted seriously culpably towards her, causing her to now suffer from long-term work disability.
The court ruled that a high threshold applies for accepting ‘seriously culpable conduct’, but that in this case Aldi had acted seriously culpably. Aldi made too many mistakes during the reintegration period. For instance, Aldi should have made better efforts to achieve mediation after an earlier attempt failed because the woman’s supervisor refused to cooperate. Aldi was also too late in granting permission to the former employee to engage a specialized psychologist. Additionally, the company chose to deploy the supervisor who was accused of bullying as reintegration manager, which significantly hindered the woman’s reintegration. Furthermore, other advice from the occupational physician was insufficiently followed. In short, a gross neglect of Aldi’s reintegration obligations, according to the Court. Aldi is ordered to pay fair compensation of €200,000.
What Does this Mean?
The above ruling once again emphasizes how important it is for employers to meet their reintegration obligations. As an employer, you may not only face a wage sanction, but also be ordered to pay fair compensation when it appears you have seriously failed during reintegration.
I expect the above ruling will lead to an increase in procedures by employees requesting fair compensation after the employer has received a wage sanction. However, the mere fact that a wage sanction has been imposed will not be sufficient for ordering payment of fair compensation. There must be more at stake, as in this case, an accumulation of errors during reintegration.
