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Welfare Prevention Expert > Labour conditions > Ergonomics > Subsidies

Reintegration and subsidies after a long period of unfitness for work

After a four-week period of being unfit for work, an employee can ask the occupational health physician to review his health so he can reprise work. This exam is combined with an analysis of the workstation and provides the occupational health physicians with the opportunity to make suggestions to the employer as regards adapted work or an adapted workstation. This takes place in consultation with experts, ergonomists, psychologists, etc…

In the case of a long period of unfitness for work due to lower back pain, the Fund for Professional Diseases (Fbz) will reimburse the employee (link) for a rehabilitation programme and the employer (link) for an evaluation and adjustments to the workstation.

Subsidies for reprising work after back complaints

A prevention programme will promote the return to work after a period of lower back pain. Medical literature has shown that such programmes reduce the risk of an evolution towards chronic lower back pain. That is why the Fund for Professional Diseases reimburses the employee and the employer.
 

 

Subsidies for the employee

This subsidy is valid for the back patient's participation in an ambulatory rehabilitation programme to treat his back (RIZIV nomenclature since 1 August 2004). The programme comprises a maximum of 36 sessions, of two hours each, spread over a 6-month period. The employee can reprise work on a full-time or part-time basis, because the treatments also take place outside office hours. See the procedure description for more information.

 

Subsidies for the employer

The Fund for Professional Diseases will reimburse part of the costs related to an ergonomic intervention in order to promote favourable conditions for returning to work: Either an ergonomic analysis of the work station, or a training that is suited to the labour conditions.

During the ergonomic workstation analysis, the ergonomist will conduct a participative task analysis of workstation activities that burdens the employee’s back. You will receive a report describing bottlenecks and including proposals for improvement.

Recommendations can vary: A practical training programme concerning work techniques, individual coaching work methods, a change of labour equipment or the acquisition of mechanic tools, …

In order to receive the 350-euro subsidy as an employer, all you have to do is send the three documents listed below to the Fund for Professional Diseases, within a 6-month period after the Fund for Professional Diseases' decision for acceptance of the treatment (see procedure description for more information):

  • The report concerning the ergonomic intervention;
  • The invoice of the ergonomic intervention;
  • The form to request a reimbursement.

 

Who can apply?

The employee has to fulfil the following conditions to apply:

  1. The employee has to be a wage earner, statutory or contractual personnel, of the company.
  2. The employee is under medical supervision for the following risk: manual handling of loads and/or mechanical vibrations.
  3. At the time of the application, the employee has to be unfit for work, or
    • For at least four weeks and no longer than three months due to lower back pain;
    • For at least one week and no longer than three months, and he or she has already been unfit for work due to lower back for at least three years in the year preceding the current unfitness for work;
    • For at least four weeks and no longer than three months due to a surgical intervention for lower back pain.

 

Procedure description for registering an employee who is unfit for work for the prevention programme

The employee himself has to file the application under the supervision of his physician and occupational health physician.

 

procedure-prevention-fr

 

  1. The physician (GP, specialist) determines whether there is medical cause for not following the programme.
  2. The patient makes an appointment with the occupational health physician (via his employer) who will check whether the employee is applicable. Should this be the case, then the occupational healthy physician will send a copy of the form to the Fund for Professional Diseases and then returns the original to the employee.
  3. The employee chooses a rehabilitation centre from the list drawn up by the Fund for Professional Diseases, makes an appointment, taking the form with him.
  4. The specialist at the rehabilitation centre fills out the form and then sends it to the Fund for Professional Diseases.
  5. Within 15 days of receiving the form, the Fund for Professional Diseases notifies the employee of its decision.
  6. At the end of the rehabilitation, the centre draws up a form about how the employee progressed and about the outcome of the treatment. After receiving this report, the Fund for Professional Diseases will reimburse the employee for his transport costs.
  7. The employee sends a copy of the invoice, which he/she receives from the rehabilitation centre to the Fund for Professional Diseases, which will then reimburse the employee’s own contribution for the rehabilitation treatment.

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