The new reform on the reintegration process: 5 things you need to know

A worker who is at risk of becoming unable to work due to health problems may now ask the employer to examine whether workplace adjustments, adapted work or other suitable work are possible. To analyse this request, the employer may, where appropriate, seek advice from the relevant prevention advisor(s) (although this is not mandatory). The employer must respond as soon as possible to the worker’s request, informing them of the action taken or, where applicable, of the reasons why the request cannot be granted.

Prevent rather than cure is the underlying logic of this new mechanism: workers no longer need to wait until they are unable for work to request adjustments. This preventive trajectory may, for example, help prevent burnout or musculoskeletal disorders.

At any time during the incapacity for work, the employer or the worker may now request a pre‑return‑to‑work visit. This is a voluntary possibility, not an obligation. The request is submitted to the prevention advisor - occupational physician (“PA-OP”). The PA-OP examines the worker and, where necessary, the workplace and may eventually issue recommendations. The employer is not obliged to implement these recommendations. This pre‑return‑to‑work visit is therefore an informal version of the reintegration process and aims to encourage re-engagement with workers on sick leave. Furthermore, the employer is now required to regularly inform workers of the possibility of requesting this pre‑return-to-work visit and of their rights in this respect.

To address the silence that often exists between workers on sick leave and their employer, the employer must now include in the work regulations a procedure for maintaining contact with these workers. This procedure must specify who, within the organisation, will contact the worker on sick leave and how frequently. In addition, the employer’s existing obligation to inform the PA-OP of any incapacity after four weeks of sick leave remains fully applicable and must continue to be observed.

A key measure of the reform is the introduction of a mandatory assessment of the worker’s “work potential” once they have been on sick leave for at least eight weeks. As soon as the worker reaches eight weeks of incapacity, the employer must proactively request the mandatory assessment of “work potential” from the PA-OP. Based on the worker’s health condition, this analysis helps determine whether to initiate a reintegration trajectory or consider another option.

If the outcome is positive, the employer is required to initiate a reintegration trajectory no later than six months after the start of the incapacity. If the outcome is negative, the employer is not obliged to start a reintegration trajectory and can instead start the medical force majeure procedure after six months of sick leave. It is important to note that this new obligation to evaluate the “work potential” applies only to incapacities that began on or after 1 January 2026.

Prior to this legislative change, only the worker could initiate a formal reintegration trajectory immediately after the start of the incapacity period. The employer can now also initiate a formal reintegration trajectory immediately after the start of the incapacity period, however with the worker’s prior consent.

An employer with twenty or more workers is required to start a formal reintegration trajectory at the latest six months after the start of the worker’s incapacity if the PA-OP has confirmed that the worker indeed has work potential. It will therefore no longer be possible, as was sometimes the case in the past, to leave workers on sick leave on the sidelines for an indefinite period of time without actively seeking their reintegration. Failure to initiate the reintegration trajectory within the prescribed timeframe constitutes a criminal offence, sanctioned with a level 2 penalty in application of the Belgian Social Criminal Code. The reform has not changed the content of the reintegration trajectory as such, which remains identical in its various stages.