Deadlines for sending work incapacity certificates from abroad: OGBL seeks solutions

On April 3, an OGBL delegation consisting of Jean-Luc De Matteis, Jacques Delacollette and Christian Simon-Lacroix met with Nadine Welter, First Advisor to the Minister of Labor, assisted by Armin Skrozic and Linda Dioniso, to discuss the issue of delays in sending work incapacity certificates. The obligation for cross-border workers to submit a certificate of incapacity for work to their employer or representative by the 3rd day of their absence is becoming increasingly difficult in practice, given the longer postal delays following the reorganization of postal services in France, but also in Belgium and Germany.

In order to enable many cross-border workers to fulfil their obligation to notify their employer and submit a certificate of incapacity to work in good faith, the OGBL has proposed an amendment to the current legislation. In particular, in order to provide employers with a guarantee that they will not be left in a state of uncertainty as to the duration of the employee’s absence, it was proposed to strengthen the obligation of the employee to notify the employer (or his representative) in person and to submit the certificate by other means, such as e-mail.

The OGBL also informed the Ministry’s representatives that the issue of postal deadlines also arises in the context of pre-dismissal interviews, since in these cases the time between the letter and the date of the interview is so short that the interview may take place before receipt of the letter – which obviously does not even allow the employee to attend.

The ministerial delegation, aware of these problems, has indicated that it will study these issues with a view to proposing a possible amendment to the Labor Code.