The Dutch Trade Union Federation is dissatisfied with recent study findings on the reassessment of people with occupational disabilities. In 2004, the social partners agreed that more stringent medical examination criteria for occupationally disabled people would be compensated by increased efforts on the part of employers to encourage the resumption of work. However, despite some improvement, it appears that the level of employer support remains insufficient.
Effects of act on labour capacity
On launching the Work and Income according to Labour Capacity Act (Wet Werk en Inkomen naar Arbeidsvermogen, WIA) in 2004, the Dutch social partners agreed that more rigorous medical examination criteria for occupationally disabled persons would be compensated by increased efforts on the part of employers to encourage and support the resumption of work. However, considerable disquiet arose within the bipartite Labour Foundation (Stichting van de Arbeid, STAR) in 2007 when it appeared that the majority of people with a minor occupational disability were without work.
Contrary to all agreements reached, more than a third (about 35%) of these partially disabled employees no longer received WIA benefits and had already been let go from work. Fewer than half of these employees with disabilities (46%) had returned to full-time employment, generally at their former employer. Therefore, in 2007, the social partners agreed to arrange for a second assessment.
The subsequent study showed a marked improvement in the situation by February 2008. Almost three quarters of the people with a minor occupational disability were still employed by their former employer and about two thirds had returned to work. Overall, nine out of 10 employees had reintegrated at their former employer, often in their original position. The social partners expressed their satisfaction with these results.
Lower benefits prompt return to work
In 2008, the Administrative Institute for Employee Insurance Schemes (Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen, UWV) initiated its own study among all occupationally disabled people receiving benefits. The organisation reassessed 300,000 persons with occupational disabilities on the basis of the new criteria that took effect in 2004. The more stringent criteria are based on the principle of examining what kind of work people can still perform. More than two thirds of those occupationally disabled have since been reassessed and the insurance benefits received by 90,000 people have been lowered. They are expected to compensate for the loss of income by working more or seeking better-paid employment.
The UWV study aims to investigate whether this objective has been achieved. Around 40% of the people with occupational disabilities were already employed when they were re-examined and most of them succeeded in retaining their jobs. More than half of the people informed in 2005 and 2006 that their benefits would be lowered or discontinued had returned to work within 18 months. This represents 15% more than at the point of reassessment in 2005 and 2006.
Of those individuals without work at the point of re-examination, more than a third had returned to work within a year and a half. Some seven out of 10 people still without work 18 months after being reassessed do not expect to find employment again. Often due to health reasons, they believe that they are capable of less than that assumed by UWV. More than a third of people whose benefits were suspended or lowered claim to have lost out financially. A year and a half later, about 5% are claiming social security benefits.
A previous study commissioned by UWV, published in 2007, revealed that 24% of all disabled employees found work within eight months of being re-examined under the Occupational Disability Insurance Act (Wet op de arbeidsongeschiktheidsverzekering, WAO) – the precursor to the WIA – although such employment was often of a temporary nature (NL0707079I).
Trade union federation opposes WIA
The Dutch Trade Union Federation (Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging, FNV) still believes that the WIA must be revised and that employers should be strongly encouraged to retain their disabled employees. FNV’s WIA helpdesk recorded that 80% of those who had made contact had still not resumed work after their reassessment. This group consists largely of people with a more serious disability. In financial terms, this has major consequences since the benefit level is linked to the claimants’ capacity to work. Moreover, unemployment benefits are temporary, later becoming social security benefits.
FNV intends to urge the Dutch parliamentary House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal) to reverse the WIA and relax the criteria. However, employers believe that this is unnecessary. For its part, FNV regards the latter attitude as strange. After all, an agreement had been reached when the act was launched that employers would do everything possible to reassign employees to suitably adjusted positions within the original employer’s company or elsewhere. According to FNV, the national agreement between the social partners to maintain all partially disabled people in employment has not been honoured, albeit there has been some improvement in this regard.
Marianne Grünell, Hugo Sinzheimer Institute (HSI)