Assessing files is people work

Several years ago, consultant Maarten had a conversation with a Occupational Assessor from the UWV. Among other things, she did the assessments of reintegration files for sufficient efforts. She was one of the gatekeepers of the WIA. It was very interesting to hear the other side.

Not just wage sanctions

First of all, she assured me that the UWV is not there just to impose wage sanctions. She also found it often annoying to have to impose wage sanctions. Combining legislation and regulations with practice can sometimes be difficult. And that files cannot always be tested one-to-one against the guidelines. In short, that assessing reintegration dossiers is also the work of man.

We talked a lot about what problems they as UWV now most often encounter when they face files.

Opportunities 1st track

First of all, she mentioned that she noticed that opportunities within the First Rail are often insufficiently explored. The first track is offering alternative (suitable) sustainable work within the organization, the second track is guiding the employee to suitable sustainable work outside the organization.

The Occupational Assessor indicated that she sees very often that Second Track is quickly resorted to, without enough research into whether there are actually opportunities within one's own organization.

Deployment of Interventions

The second thing the she pointed out was that she noticed that there is often quite a long wait before deploying interventions. Of course, interventions should not be deployed indiscriminately. But if an employee has been unfit for work for a year, and it remains unclear what the future holds, it is necessary to consider whether an alternative route can be taken. For example, in the form of alternative, suitable work.

That said, if in the above situation there is a very good reason not to pursue an alternative route, it need not be.

No possibilities in the files

For example, if someone has such an illness in which it is clearly stated by a physician that no intervention is possible because of the medical condition (for example: someone is hospitalized internally, someone has such intensive treatment that all the time has to go into that), then there is no one, not even the UWV, who says that an employer is not doing enough.

Bearing

And that brings me to the last important point raised by this Occupational Assessor : She often comes across files that in terms of process are quite different from the "standard timeline" described in the Wet verbetering Poortwachter. There doesn't have to be anything wrong with that. As long as you indicate why you deviate! Argue, argue, argue. That is the key to a good absence file and reducing the chances of a wage sanction. Write everything down" was the advice of Occupational Assessor. Agreements between you and your employee, construction schedules, agreements between you and the company doctor, write it down!

Finally

It has now been several years since I spoke to this Occupational Assessor from my role as an absence case manager. In the meantime, as a Career and Reintegration Consultant at Puls 2nd track , I carry out trajectories. But this does not mean that her story is no longer relevant. On the contrary! The UWV is still paying attention to the above issues. Take advantage of it!