Continued payment and wage value in case of illness; what about that?
When an employee is no longer able to (fully) carry out his or her work due to disability or illness, you, as an employer, must work together to reintegrate. This involves a number of obligations such as continued payment of wages and the assignment of wage value. But what exactly is wage value and what is the difference with continued payment of wages? We'll explain it!
Continued payment and reintegration obligation
As an employer, you are obliged to continue to pay a sick employee's salary for the first two years. During the wage payment period, you are also responsible for the reintegration; together with the employee, you will see what activities can be carried out.
Wage value
The moment that an employee can start reintegrating is of course very nice for all parties, but this usually means that an employee is not yet able to fully carry out the work. As an employer, you will then have to deal with a partial recovery for your employee. This is not important for continued payment of wages, but it is important for determining a fair wage value. Indeed, the work that an employee performs during reintegration has a certain value, even if this is adapted work or their own work is not being done completely or less quickly. The wage value is the value of the work that an employee performs compared to his standard position.
Why is wage value important?
As an employer, you are responsible for determining the wage value. It is also important for your absenteeism administration to adjust your absenteeism rate and to report a partial recovery. This is because the absenteeism insurer wants to know what percent the employee is ill for, which is an important factor for the payment of absenteeism insurance. According to the Gatekeeper Improvement Act, the absenteeism rate is not only the loss expressed in hours, but also a settlement of the employee's employability compared to the standard function (the wage value).
How do you determine your salary value?
To calculate the wage value, you determine the employee's current employability compared to the standard position. The amount of the wage value is therefore based, among other things, on the number of hours that an employee can work, the tasks that an employee can perform and the employee's productivity.
For example, an employee can work two hours a day, but it takes twice as long to deliver the usual quality. The wage value and recovery report are then calculated as follows:
- Hours: employee can be deployed 2 out of 8 hours per day = 25%
- Wage value: employee needs twice as much time = 50%
- Recovery report: hours x wage value (25% x 50%) = 12.5%
This calculation can also be made if an employee performs other work, where a lower salary would be paid. The wage value is a calculation made by the employer in consultation with the employee. It is therefore important to determine the wage value together.
More information
In addition to the fact that, as an employer, you are obliged to determine the wage value, it is also important for the insurer to pay out the absenteeism insurance. Correctly processing an illness and recovery report is therefore important and can be quite complex. Do you have questions or need help? Please feel free to contact Claim Expert's advisors at www.claimexpertvlh.nl, they will be happy to help you out!