New European policy toward chronically ill employees

This article provides an overview of current policies related to the chronically ill employees in the Netherlands. Different levels of policy are discussed: those formulatedat the European, Dutch and organizational levels. A significantg percentage of Dutch employees suffer from longstanding diseases (classified by International Classification of Diseases - ICD), others experience impairments at work (classified by International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health - ICF). Current policies in the European Union and in The Netherlands increasingly encourage participation of those who are impaired or disabled based on definitions of ICD and ICF formulated by World Health organization (WHO).
Recently, there has been a significant change in the Dutch policy concerning employment of chronically ill, impared or disabled people. Before 2007, employers were responsible for the management of sickness absence in order to prevent any claims for disability benefits. The new Dutch Working Conditions Act reflects the need of the government to reduce the administrative burdens on companies and eliminate superfluous rules to give companies more scope for introducing individual arrangements. According to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, working conditions regulations
have been made simpler and easier to implement. The working conditions policy within companies became more flexible, dividing responsibility for safety, health and reintegration between both employers’ and employees’. The switch to less detailed rules and more scope for individual arrangements ties in with absence and reintegration policy. In this article, we examine some of the implications of this shift.