‘Small statutes’ from 2020: new Dimona obligation!

From 2020, the Workplace Accidents Act will be extended to the ‘small statutes’, which is the term to designate all kinds of traineeships that are not subject to social security. A significant impact is expected on the Dimona declaration.

 

Accidents at work and small statutes

 Because the competence over education was transferred to the regions (6th state reform), the combination of learning and working has rapidly expanded in recent years and has led to a large number of new systems that are not subject to social security nor to the workplace accidents regulations. Today, persons having this statute fall back on their statute-specific scheme. In the meantime, as many allowances schemes as there are types of training have been created, with legal uncertainty for all concerned.

 

As from 2020, the legislator will provide for general and coherent coverage for these small statutes, by integrating them into the Workplace Accidents Act. All necessary information must be provided to the insurers through the extension of the data in the Dimona declaration.

 

What types of training?

 The small statutes are combinations of training and work:

• where work is performed outside the educational or training institution;
• in the context of training leading to paid employment;
• and without this work implying being subjected as an ordinary employee or apprentice.

 

Examples: individual vocational training (IBO), vocational immersion (BIO or BIS), training paths for jobseekers, practical training to obtain a diploma, ...

 

Who is the ‘employer’ subject to the insurance obligation?

 The regulations designate for each traineeship/training course the ‘employer’ who is subject to the insurance obligation. This is either the traineeship provider (= the company that organises the traineeship at the workplace) or the training institution (= VDAB, Actiris, Forem, training centre, vocational training centre, educational institution, etc.).

 

With regard to the trainee, the person who is subject to the insurance obligation will become responsible for:

• the Dimona declaration;
• taking out an insurance for accidents at work;
• the declaration of accidents at work.

 

The traineeship provider is only obliged to take out insurance for a limited group of training courses:

 

Form of training with common abbreviation in the language of the region	Region where applicable
individual in-company vocational training agreement (FPIE)	Brussels
transition into work placement	German-speaking Community (abolished in other regions)
individual in-company vocational training agreement (IBO and K-IBO)	Flanders
retraining agreement (CAP)	Brussels
training-integration agreement (CFI)	Wallonia
special apprenticeship agreement for the retraining of disabled persons	Wallonia
individual in-company vocational training agreement	German-speaking community
company training agreement for the disabled	German-speaking Community
vocational immersion agreement (CIP)	German-speaking Community, Brussels, Wallonia
federal sea accustomization	(maritime sector)
alternance training for jobseekers	Wallonia
professional experience traineeship (BIS)	Flanders
traineeship contract for the entrepreneurship path	Flanders

 

 

Workplace accidents allowances scheme

 In the insurance for accidents at work, each of these forms of training is linked to either a general statute with guarantees similar to those of apprentices who are subject to social security or to a limited statute.

 

In general terms, the limited statute means:

• only coverage for the part involving work performed (the training part is excluded);
• only coverage in the event of permanent incapacity/death, no coverage for temporary incapacity;
• intervention in medical care limited to the co-payment;
• base wage for the calculation of the permanent incapacity/death on the basis of the average minimum monthly income (GMMI).

 

 

The new ‘full’ Dimona

 To insure the small statutes, Fedris needs the following information, which will be mandatory in the Dimona declaration from 1 January 2020:

1. start and end period of the traineeship
2. type of trainee (IVT, TRI or STG)
3. nature of employment: manual worker/non-manual worker
4. risk class of accidents at work
5. statute in the insurance for accidents at work: general (F1) or limited (F2).

 

When will this take effect?

 

The integration into the Workplace Accidents Act will take effect on 1 January 2020 for the accidents at work occurring from this date.

 

This means that as from 1 January 2020, all ‘small’ statutes with their necessary data must be included in the Dimona declaration, regardless of the start date of the training.

 

For ‘small statutes’ with an active Dimona declaration on 31 December 2019, the action is the following:

• Dimona ‘OUT’ in progress on 31 December 2019
• new Dimona ‘IN’ on 1 January 2020 with all mandatory data. The type of traineeship remains the same in case of IVT or TRI, while the type DWD becomes STG.

 

Source: Act of 21 December 2018 on various social provisions (art. 1-24) and Royal Decree of 29 July 2019 implementing section 1, chapter 2 of the Law of 21 December 2018.