Gatekeeper Improvement Act

The Gatekeeper Improvement Act, in Dutch the Wet verbetering poortwachter, sets out the steps employer and employee must take to make a return to work possible during the first two years of incapacity. The UWV reviews those efforts when the disability benefit claim is filed.

Legal basis

The obligations follow from Article 7:658a of the Dutch Civil Code and the accompanying regulation on the first and second year of illness. The timetable is fixed: by week six the occupational physician prepares a problem analysis, by week eight employer and employee draw up an action plan together, which is evaluated periodically. Around week 52 comes the first-year evaluation, the key moment for deciding whether the second track must be started. In week 93 the employee files the WIA claim with the reintegration report. If the UWV concludes that the employer did too little, Article 25(9) of the WIA imposes a wage sanction of up to 52 weeks.

How it works in practice

Track one is a return to work with the existing employer, in the same or adapted work. Track two is reintegration with another employer and must be started as soon as it is clear that a return within the organisation will not succeed within a foreseeable period. In practice the first-year evaluation is the hinge: waiting too long to start track two is the most common reason for a wage sanction. Every step and consideration must be recorded in writing.

Where it goes wrong

Employers do not follow the occupational physician’s advice, or fail to record why they departed from it. A second error is an action plan never updated after it was first drawn up, even though capacity changed. Third, employers underestimate that the employee has obligations too: refusing suitable work or failing to cooperate can, on conditions, justify stopping salary.