Dilemma
The Netherlands has an estimated 450,000 long Covid patients. At least 90,000 have serious complaints. The majority of workers with long Covid will eventually be declared incapacitated for work, the UWV benefits agency expects.
The number of applications for the WIA disability benefit is therefore increasing. According to the UWV, this is mainly due to an increase in the number of people with long-term Covid.
After two years of illness, the employer may dismiss a sick employee. Do you keep the employee with long Covid employed because he or she may still get better, or do you let him go?
Adapt
Returning to work is completely different for employees with long Covid than with other conditions, says company doctor Ernst Jurgens. On behalf of the Dutch Association for Occupational and Occupational Medicine, he developed a guideline for the reintegration of workers with long Covid, together with occupational therapists, aftercare advisors and other company doctors. In recent years, he has supervised at least a hundred long Covid patients himself.
“Employers and company doctors are used to reintegration processes in which the patient gradually recovers,” says Jurgens. For example, with back problems, we know that with some physio, home exercises and a slow build-up you can often get back to work within a few months. “It then makes much more sense to increase the number of hours step by step, because the recovery process is somewhat predictable.”
With long Covid, recovery goes up and down, Jurgens sees in his consultation room. In many patients, small efforts can sometimes lead to great fatigue or other complaints. “For example, a long Covid patient may have to recover for days, and sometimes even weeks, after a tense conversation with the boss. So you can’t just say to a long Covid patient: add a few more hours next week.”
Employers are usually very understanding at first, says Jurgens. “’Take your time,’ they say. ‘And let us know if there’s anything we can do for you.’” But as the disease progresses, Jurgen sees employers’ attention waning and support crumbling. “They then ask questions like: ‘Wow, are you still unable to do anything? You can try it, right?’”
Especially in healthcare, where there are major shortages, the company doctor hears that the pressure on employees with long Covid is increasing due to gaps in the roster. “’Because you’re not coming now, someone else has to work harder.’ Those kinds of scenes.” The complaints then actually get worse. Guilt increases and people become tense and sometimes even depressed.
Ultimately, most long Covid patients are discharged after two years of illness, Jurgens sees. Of the approximately one hundred people he supervised, perhaps two or three were not fired. Jurgens says he doesn’t understand that. According to him, employers are now letting go of good, often highly educated people. “They may now function less well at work, but who knows, a brilliant researcher may soon have a eureka moment and there will be a way out for long Covid patients. The labor market is tight, we want to be a knowledge economy, and then we let good people go? The law says that you can fire people after two years, yes, but you can also continue with someone.”
The Netherlands has a “nice solidarity” system, says company doctor Jurgens, whereby the employer continues to pay (partial) wages for two years. In other countries, employees are often dismissed more quickly. “The problem now is that the legislation is detrimental to people with long Covid,” says Jurgens. “Their recovery process is so unpredictable that you cannot know whether they will be able to work again after two years, or whether adjustments are needed.” Trade union FNV also sees that many employees with long Covid are being dismissed after two years of illness. Vice-chairman Kitty Jong: “Our analysis is that employers would rather not want people who have something wrong with them, because you have to do something about that. You have already had two years of continued payment of wages in the event of illness, which employers often consider to be enough.” The FNV sees the same thing happening to cancer patients, even after they have been cured. Because they are still suffering from chemo or radiation, the employer does not want to continue with them.
The FNV insists that employers look at what someone can still do. “An employee can often still do something, but adjustments or facilities are needed,” says Jong. “An employee with long Covid must be able to be flexible in the number of hours he or she works per day or week and, for example, also be able to rest between work. But we hear that many employers are not willing to adjust working hours or create a rest area.”
Jong calls it “extra painful” that many people with long Covid contracted the infection at work, for example in healthcare, and are now fired by their employer after two years. “And now we see that the people who are most often dismissed after long Covid are often women who have worked in nursing or home care, among other things. They sacrificed their health for us and now they are losing their jobs.” Jong says he cannot understand this given the current staff shortages, especially in healthcare.
Follow the law
Employers’ association AWVN never or hardly receives questions from members about this issue. “The law is crystal clear,” says a spokesperson. “You must continue to pay wages for two years in the event of illness. If you don’t do that, you will be hit by the UWV. But after those two years you can dismiss the sick employee. We receive few questions from members, because from a legal perspective it is clear. From a human point of view, it is of course extremely unpleasant to have long Covid.”
So
An employer has every right to let a sick employee leave after two years. But you can consider keeping an employer employed, because he may still recover.