Nearly six in ten companies with more than fifty employees are resolutely against the abolition of the sick note for one day’s absence. This is apparent today from an employer survey by HR service provider Securex.
At the beginning of June, the competent federal ministers Frank Vandenbroucke and Pierre-Yves Dermagne announced a measure whereby employees of companies with more than fifty employees can be absent for one day up to three times a year due to illness without having to submit a sick note.
More than half (55.8 percent) of companies with more than fifty employees are resolutely against the abolition. Only one in five (19.7 percent) is willing to accept the measure and a quarter (24.5 percent) say they may be willing to do so. At larger companies with at least 25 percent workers, that is only 8.8 percent.
No fewer than 76 percent of employers fear that the measure will lead to an increase in the number of one-day absences. Only one in ten (11.6 percent) fear no more one-day absences.
Currently, more than eight in ten (83.5 percent) companies with at least 50 employees require their employees to always submit a sick note when they are out for one day due to illness. Less than one in ten (8.7 percent) is never asked to do so. An obligation is less common (69.2 percent) in the Brussels region, where larger companies usually employ more white-collar workers. Larger companies in particular employing more than a quarter of workers systematically require the sick note for one day’s absence (90.7 percent). The new measure will therefore require a major conversion among the larger companies in Belgium.
The survey was conducted by Securex between June 30 and July 12, 2022 at 1,105 employers in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels. Exactly 28.1 percent of the respondents have more than fifty employees.
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