Your rights if you have a job and get sick

Tell your employer as soon as possible on the first day you are sick. Your contract probably explains how your employer expects you to do this. Usually, you do this by calling your supervisor in the morning before you are expected at work. After you call in sick, your employer must notify the company doctor or health and safety service within four days. The health and safety service is an organisation that helps an employer when an employee gets sick.    You are not required to tell them what is wrong when you call in sick. Your employer may also not ask about it. Your employer may, however, ask when you think you will be back at work again and if you can do other work during the sickness period.

You get wages when you are sick. This wage must be at least 70 percent of your gross pay. If this wage is less than the minimum wage, the employer must supplement up to the legal minimum wage. If you are sick for a long time, you can get this wage for up to 2 years.

It does not matter whether you have a permanent or temporary contract. You are entitled to this pay for the hours you normally work according to your contract. These rules are also in your work's collective labour agreement (CLA).

Do you have a 0-hour contract or work part-time and get sick? Then the employer also pays 70 percent of your wages. How much this wage is depends on several situations:

• The number of hours you are scheduled to work.

• The average number of hours you worked per week in the past period.

• The number of hours you would work according to your contract.

Your employer is obliged to pay you according to the rules and find out what you are entitled to. For example, are you working through a temp agency and working more hours than your contract states? Then your employer must pay you a wage based on the number of hours you worked and not the 0 hours in your contract.

Is your employer not following the rules? Then you can seek legal help.

If you are not better after 6 weeks, you will have an interview with a company doctor. This doctor investigates the reasons for your illness. The doctor is not allowed to tell your employer about what you have discussed. The doctor works with you to see what is needed to get you back to work.

You and your employer will receive the company doctor's report by post or e-mail. This report does not include medical details or what you discussed with the doctor. However, it does provide advice on how and when you can return to work.

Together with the company doctor and your employer, you will make a plan to start working again. This is called reintegration. You and your employer both have to stick to this plan. If you agreed that you will first work half days before going back to work full time, your employer cannot suddenly say that you have to stay longer. Make sure you stop working when agreed and go home on time.

If you cannot return to your old job, for example, after an accident, talk to the company doctor and your employer about what other work you could do.