Medical discharge for long-term sick people is much more common than reintegration

Last year, a decision was made on how to proceed on the work floor for more than 22,800 long-term disabled employees. Barely 18 percent entered a formal reintegration process. This involves looking for adapted work for the sick person. For more than 80 percent, a medical force majeure procedure was started, which leads to job loss.

This is evident from the latest figures from the Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue. The FPS collected the annual figures of seven of the ten external services for prevention and protection at work.

More than half a million people in Belgium are chronically ill. This group has grown by almost a quarter in the past five years. People with mental illnesses, such as depression or burnout, account for more than a third (37 percent) of the total. Getting the chronically ill back to work is essential to boost the employment rate in our country.

No severance pay

In the event of medical force majeure, the occupational physician declares someone permanently unfit to perform the job, after which the employer can terminate the employment relationship. In such a termination, companies do not have to pay severance pay and the long-term sick person can immediately contact the health insurance fund. In seven out of ten cases, it is the employer who submitted the application to proceed with medical dismissal, in three out of ten cases the employee took the initiative.

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Up until 2022, companies had only one formal option for long-term sick employees: a reintegration program. Sometimes this led to adapted work, but if this was not found, dismissal could still be decided upon – which happened very often. In 2023, a reform with two separate tracks was introduced: starting a reintegration program or starting the medical force majeure procedure.