Lifetime limit on medical part-time? Yes, sometimes

disability and special needs, Health, Newsletter - 2023-04-20, Working conditions Print This Post

*Update 20.02.2024 have any of you accessed the available help for returning to work after long-term sick leave? Tell us about it!* Original article: You’ve been on sick leave and you’re not quite fit enough yet to return to work 100%, but yes, you could do at least 50% and you’re keen to get back to some semblance of normality. Note, if you’re unable to work a minimum of 50% or you’re not able to be back to your normal 100% within a maximum of 6 months, then it’s too early to start, wait a little and look at the caveat below before making a decision!

What is it for? 

A phased return to work (‘medical part-time’) can be a good way to get you back up to speed or to accommodate ongoing out-patient treatments such as follow-up procedures/appointments or physiotherapy. This is a temporary work formula not a work pattern and not part-time. For this reason it is not visible in your job applications, thanks to you!

 ‘Medical part-time is not a part-time work formula but a sick leave of less than 100%. For more information, please read the Commission’s decision on absences as a result of sickness or accident.’ (Staff Matters)

‘[it is] the gradual reintegration into the working routine …’ (Commission Decision N° 92-2004 / 06.07.2004, Brussels, 28.4.2004, C(2004) 1597Annex, III.c).

How does it work?

You receive your full salary during this time for a minimum of 20 hours (50% of full-time) and you increase the number of hours each month (e.g. 24 hours per week (60%), 30 hours per week (75%)). Check with the medical service whether medical part time would be a possibility for you. We highlighted medical part-time as one of the many possible outcomes of a medical control, e.g. that you might be invited to convert 2 weeks of sick leave to 4 weeks of 50% medical part-time. There is a 6-month limit per episode on this work formula.

‘The maximum period of part time working on medical grounds is three months; In exceptional circumstances, an extension may be granted for a maximum of three months by the Medical Service on the basis of a detailed medical report.’ (Commission Decision N° 92-2004 / 06.07.2004, Brussels, 28.4.2004, C(2004) 1597, Annex, III.c)

Caveat/lifetime limit

Several colleagues have contacted Generation 2004 to question the refusal or curtailing of their medical part-time on the basis that the 6-month limit is a lifetime limit, a one-off allowance which once exhausted is gone forever. We could find no basis for this assertion that the 6-month limit  applies to a whole career.

Indeed, many of our colleagues are decades from retirement but have already used more than 6 months of medical part-time (see page 3, 18.03.2023). It is difficult enough to reintegrate post long-term sick leave without having to face a leap to 100% full-time from day one![1] We wrote to HR to ask whether these colleagues were to be faced with the binary ‘choice’ of either returning to work 100% or remain 100% on sick leave?

HR have confirmed that, while there is no such general lifetime limit,  in given circumstances yes, there is indeed a lifetime limit.

‘… even  though  the  rules  on  medical  part-time  should  be  interpreted strictly, there  is no lifetime  medical-part-time  limitation  of  6  months in  the  course  of  a whole career […]

a staff member can, in principle, not be granted medical part-time for a given pathology more than once during a career.

However, staff members can still be granted medical part-time when it is linked to other pathologies. Furthermore, in case a pathology did not persist but reappeared after a considerable period of time, a medical part-time may be granted again even though it was already granted before for the given pathology.

Thus, subject to the indicated conditions, medical part-time can be granted more than once in the course of a whole career.’ (Ms INGESTAD, HR, 14.03.2023)

Concerns

One single pathology … this catch-all would appear to make life difficult specifically for our  colleagues who are already facing difficulties in their day-to-day. So this will make life harder for our office buddies and team mates with any important issue impacting their physical and/or mental health, for example those with disabilities or those with cancer.

If someone has no further option for a more gradual reintegration in the workplace, are we abandoning our colleagues at their most vulnerable and risking the permanent loss of valuable staff due to temporary health issues?[2]

We are not sure how well this fits with diversity and inclusion in our workplace, with the push to make the Commission:

‘an organisation that cares for its staff and supports it to deliver’ (HR Strategy workplace and wellbeing pillar: Summary of Workshop Feedback until 21 October 2020)

and with the stated intention to make the Commission:

‘a modern, flexible and values-driven organisation which empowers staff to deliver outstanding results for European citizens.’ (A new human resources strategy for the Commission draft short text, Ares(2021)5413749-02/09/2021)

In Medical reservation = discrimination against persons with disabilities (long read) we pointed out that the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities noted the non-compliance of the JSIS, are our sick-leave restrictions to be added to this list?

‘… that the EU revise its Joint Sickness and Insurance Scheme [JSIS] so as to comprehensively cover disability-related health needs in a manner which is compliant with the Convention’ (Concluding observations on the initial report of the EU, CRPD/C/EU/CO/1, paragraph 87, September 2015)

And for colleagues who have used up their limit for that pathology?

Given that medical part-time is sick leave of less than 100%, this suggests that you can proceed as outlined in our medical ‘controls’ FAQ. So, request it anyway and if this is refused, move quickly:

Request arbitration within 48 hours

(question 6) What if I disagree with the outcome? You must act fast! You must submit a request for an independent re-evaluation (‘arbitration’) within 48 hours of the medical visit (medical service FAQs, question 17). ‘If the official considers the conclusions of the medical examination arranged by the Appointing Authority to be unjustified on medical grounds, he or a doctor acting on his behalf may within two days submit to the institution a request that the matter be referred to an independent doctor for an opinion.’ (staff regulations, Article 59(1))

Ask about all available options:

Do any of you know of any cases of a colleague returning to work post-invalidity? Also, while it is possible to go from medical part-time to sick leave, what happens when that sick leave is again long-term? If any of you would like to share your experiences of this process, please get in touch with us!

If there is something that affects you and makes you think ‘that shouldn’t happen!’ then get in touch with us. Generation 2004 will assist you with the information and the tools you need to enforce your rights, just as we did with colleagues being ‘volunteered’ for standby duty and a colleague denied access to their own medical file.

As always, we would love to hear from you.

If you appreciate our work, please consider becoming a member of Generation 2004.

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[1] Check out the definition of long-term and some unwritten or lesser-known rules. Added 24.05.2023: European physical and mental disability rating scale for medical purposes

[2] While periodic revaluations and the possibility of reintegration post invalidity/incapacity are set out in the Manuel de procédure en matière de commissions d’invalidité (12 octobre 2022, available in French only (eTranslation)), we query the implications of placing this additional administrative and financial burden on staff who are already in poor health.

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