What do I do at the first-year evaluation?

Conclusion

After 52 weeks of illness you evaluate the plan of action with the employee. That is the end of the first year of illness, in art. 4 lid 2 of the Regeling procesgang. Both views belong in the evaluation. If it gives reason, you adjust the plan in writing. You give a copy at once to the employee, the guide and the doctor.

What the statute actually says

The first-year evaluation (eerstejaarsevaluatie) is the evaluation at the end of the first year of illness. That year ends when the incapacity has lasted 52 weeks. The regulation does not set a separate week number. It does name that end as a fixed evaluation moment, next to the periodic moments you agreed in the plan.

You make the plan itself within two weeks after the company doctor's opinion, if a return to work is still possible. The contents and that deadline are on the plan of action during illness. Art. 7:658a lid 3 BW says you evaluate the plan regularly and adjust it where needed, with the employee's cooperation.

The company doctor (bedrijfsarts) or the occupational health service (arbodienst) hears the employee regularly. If the course calls for a change, you ask that doctor for advice at once. The advice goes to you and to the employee. That is art. 4 lid 4 of the regulation.

The employee cooperates with the evaluation and the adjustment. That is art. 7:660a lid 1 BW.

The reintegration report (re-integratieverslag) contains this evaluation, and the latest evaluation after it. That is art. 6 lid 1 of the regulation. Keep the text. You draw up the report at the latest 13 weeks before the waiting period ends. The sequence is on Wet verbetering poortwachter: what must I do?.

The Beleidsregels beoordelingskader poortwachter are UWV policy, not statute. They also call this moment the shake-up moment (opschudmoment). You look back on the first year of illness. You establish whether reintegration is still on course. If a return in your own business has produced no result, you also start preparing work with another employer. That runs alongside whatever still continues in your business. That preparation stays off if there is still a concrete prospect of a return in your own business.

The Werkwijzer Poortwachter (1 August 2022) is policy as well. It expects the second track (spoor 2) to start within six weeks after the first-year evaluation. The exception is a concrete return in your organisation within three months. The statute sets no week number for the second track. The second track applies once the employee's own work is no longer possible and your business has no other suitable work. That is art. 7:658a lid 1 BW. The task is on second-track reintegration.

If you skip this evaluation and chances of a return were missed, the UWV extends the wage duty. The extension is 52 weeks at most. That is art. 25 lid 9 WIA. The detail is on A UWV wage sanction.

What you should do as an employer

1. When the illness reaches 52 weeks. Who: you and the employee. Set the meeting at the end of the first year of illness. That moment is already in the plan of action (plan van aanpak).

2. In the meeting. Look back on the first year's activities. Put your view and the employee's view in writing. The question is whether the course is still right.

3. If the course is not right. Adjust the plan, in agreement with the employee. Ask the doctor for advice if the course of the illness calls for it. Put the update in writing.

4. The same day. Give a copy to the employee, to the guide and to the company doctor or the service.

5. Second track. Who: you. Start preparing work with another employer if your own business still has no result and a concrete prospect of a return there is missing. The Werkwijzer names six weeks after this evaluation for that start. That is policy.

6. Keep the text. Who: you. It later goes into the reintegration report. Without that text the report misses a required part.

Main exceptions and edge cases

An employee who has reached AOW pension age does not get a plan of action. Without a plan there is no first-year evaluation of that plan. That employee does not have to cooperate with a plan. That is art. 7:658a lid 3 BW and art. 7:660a lid 2 BW.

If the doctor's opinion shows no remaining possibilities to promote a return to work, you make no plan. Without a plan you do not evaluate that plan. The absence record and the week-42 report stay in place for as long as the wage duty runs.

An evaluation without the employee's view misses art. 4 lid 2. An update without a copy misses art. 4 lid 3. A meeting that exists only in your diary is not an evaluation under the regulation.

A concrete prospect of a return in your own business postpones the preparation for another employer. That prospect belongs in the evaluation, with both views. The Werkwijzer names a return within three months for that exception.

If the employee refuses the evaluation or the update, the employee is not cooperating under art. 7:660a lid 1 BW. The right to wage ends in the cases of art. 7:629 lid 3 BW. Those grounds are on sick pay during illness.

Checklist

• Date set: the end of the first year of illness, after 52 weeks.

• Meeting with the employee, with both views in writing.

• Course judged: own business, or also work with another employer.

• Plan adjusted if the evaluation or the doctor's advice gives reason.

• Copy the same day to the employee, the guide and the doctor.

• Text kept for the reintegration report.

FAQ

When is the first-year evaluation?

At the end of the first year of illness. That is when the incapacity has lasted 52 weeks. That is art. 4 lid 2 of the Regeling procesgang. This moment sits next to the periodic evaluations you agreed in the plan.

What do we discuss at the first-year evaluation?

You look back on the first year's activities. You and the employee each put your view of the course in writing. The question is whether reintegration is still on course. That follows from art. 4 lid 2 of the regulation.

Must I adjust the plan of action?

If the evaluation or the doctor's advice gives reason to. Then you adjust the plan, in agreement with the employee, in writing, with a copy. That is art. 4 lid 5 of the regulation.

When does the second track start after the first year?

The statute names no week. The Werkwijzer Poortwachter expects the start within six weeks after this evaluation, unless a return in your organisation within three months is concretely in view. That is UWV policy. The second track applies once the employee's own work is no longer possible.

What if I skip the first-year evaluation?

The reintegration report must contain this evaluation. That is art. 6 of the regulation. If chances of a return to work were missed because of the skip, the UWV extends the wage duty by 52 weeks at most. That is art. 25 lid 9 WIA.

Sources

• Art. 4 of the Regeling procesgang eerste en tweede ziektejaar. The end of the first year of illness, the views, the update and the copy.

• Art. 6 of that regulation. The evaluation belongs in the reintegration report.

• Art. 7:658a BW. Regular evaluation of the plan, and the second track.

• Art. 7:660a BW. The employee's cooperation with the evaluation.

• Art. 25 lid 9 WIA. Extension of the wage duty by 52 weeks at most.

• UWV, Beleidsregels beoordelingskader poortwachter, and Werkwijzer Poortwachter, 1 August 2022. Policy. The shake-up moment, the concrete prospect and the six weeks for the second track come from there.

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