Limited neutralisation of the guaranteed wage if work partially resumed

The law of 30 October 2022 containing various provisions on incapacity for work modifies the conditions for neutralisation of the guaranteed wage within the framework of a partial resumption of work authorised by the health insurance fund's medical adviser.

The law will enter into force on 28 November 2022.

Total incapacity occurring during a partial resumption

When the worker resumes adapted work or another work authorised by the health insurance fund's medical adviser and his/her health condition worsens, a worker who is fully incapacitated is immediately covered by the health insurance fund. We refer to ‘neutralisation of the guaranteed wage’.

From 28 November 2022, this neutralisation will be limited to twenty weeks from the beginning of the performance of adapted work or another work.

In other terms, a worker who becomes fully incapacitated again less than twenty weeks after the beginning of the partial resumption authorised by the health insurance fund is immediately covered by the health insurance fund; if he/she becomes fully incapacitated again more than twenty weeks after the resumption of work authorised by the health insurance fund, he/she will receive a guaranteed wage paid by the employer for the hours authorised by the health insurance fund. If there are several periods of full incapacity that occur during the partial resumption, a new twenty-week period must not be calculated each time. The twenty-week period starts from the beginning of the first authorisation for adapted work or another work.

This limited neutralisation applies both in terms of the resumption of work with the employer and with another employer and only concerns an illness or accident in private life. The employer remains obliged to pay the guaranteed wage immediately in the event of an occupational accident or occupational disease that occurs during the partial resumption of work.

Source: Law of 30 October 2022 containing various provisions on incapacity for work, Belgian Official Gazette of 18 November 2022.