*Update 20.02.2024 have any of you accessed the available help for returning to work after long-term sick leave [1]? Tell us about it! [2]* 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, [3] 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 [4]’) can be a good way to get you back up to speed or to accommodate ongoing out-patient treatments [5] such as follow-up procedures/appointments or physiotherapy. This is a temporary work formula not a work pattern [6] and not part-time. For this reason it is not visible in your job applications [6], 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 [7].’ (Staff Matters [8])
‘[it is] the gradual reintegration into the working routine …’ (Commission Decision N° 92-2004 / 06.07.2004 [7], 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 [9] 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 [10], 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 [7], 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 [11], 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 [12] 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 [13])
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 [5].
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 [14], 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) [15] 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 [16], 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 [17]. 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 [18], 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 [19], Article 59(1))
Ask about all available options:
- being 100% sick (again)
- normal part-time [8]
- Reasonable accommodation [20] to facilitate your return e.g. 100% teleworking (Point 15, p. 2 of Working time and hybrid working decision [21])
- invalidity [22] and its repercussions (i.e. the process for reevaluation in order to return)
- leave on personal grounds (CCP [23]) or time credit leave [24] (but these are not intended for this purpose and are unpaid)
- Have we missed something here? Do you know of other options? Please get in touch with us [2]!
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 [2]!
If there is something that affects you and makes you think ‘that shouldn’t happen!’ then get in touch with us [2]. 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 [25] and a colleague denied access to their own medical file [26].
As always, we would love to hear from you.
If you appreciate our work, please consider becoming a member of Generation 2004 [27].
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[1] Check out the definition of long-term and some unwritten or lesser-known rules [28]. Added 24.05.2023: European physical and mental disability rating scale for medical purposes [29]
[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 [30](12 octobre 2022, available in French only (eTranslation [31])), we query the implications of placing this additional administrative and financial burden on staff who are already in poor health.