What are your entitlements during illness? Is your employer allowed to withhold your salary, or not? And for which life events are you entitled to take leave?
Illness
Are you unable to work? Then report your illness to your employer immediately. Also inform them how long you expect to be ill and provide your location (if it's not at home). If necessary, visit the doctor. Furthermore, it's important to adhere to the reintegration obligations. This means, for example, doing everything you can to recover and maintaining contact with your employer and the occupational health service or company doctor.
Continued payment of wages
Your wages will be (partially) continued. It looks like this. In the first year of your illness, you receive:
- 95% of your wages paid for the first six months.
- 90% of your wages paid for the second six months.
- You receive at least the statutory minimum salary.
In the second year of your illness, you receive:
- 85% of your wages paid for the first 6 months.
- 80% of your wages paid for the second 6 months.
Have you reached the state pension age? And are you still employed by your employer? Then the period during which your wages are continued during illness is 6 weeks.
If you are a flexitime worker, auxiliary worker, or employee with an annual hours norm, then in the event of illness, the average monthly salary (including holiday pay and holiday days) of the 13 weeks immediately preceding the illness report is considered. If your average monthly salary over these 13 weeks is not a good comparison with what you averaged over the previous 52 weeks, then your average annual salary applies.
If you cannot work due to illness, it is, of course, very unpleasant. Especially if it lasts a bit longer. When you are ill, both you and your employer have rights and obligations. Want to know what they are? Then download our ‘Work & illness’ brochure and discover all the rules, tips, and other resources from week to week.
Rules when ill
If you are ill, you should not only inform your employer in a timely manner. It is also important to check which rules apply after reporting sick. Sometimes the works council or employee representation has made agreements with the employer about this. Always check this. If there are none, the regulations from the CLA recreation apply. Your employer is responsible for arranging a replacement.
Are you ill for a longer period? Then the occupational health service or the company doctor will carry out checks and guidance in such a way that your reintegration proceeds as well as possible. If you disagree with a decision of the occupational health service, you can request a second opinion from another company doctor or an expert opinion from the UWV. There are costs associated with the expert opinion. Together with your employer, you come to an action plan to reintegrate in a good way. In our 'Work & illness' brochure, you will find all the information on this subject. You can also use the timeline forms to keep track of the course of the absence and the reintegration efforts and consult the reintegration calendar in the CLA recreation.
Extra benefit after two years
As a catering employee, you pay a premium for the Stichting Private Aanvulling WW & WGA (SPAWW) scheme. This scheme entitles you to an extra benefit after two years of WW or WGA. For the third year, you must apply for the benefit yourself. You can read more about this on the SPAWW website.
Do you receive a Wao, Wajong, Wia, or Sickness Act social benefits? Or are you at home sick and need help with your benefits application or have questions about your reintegration? As a member, you can get information and advice from our Wia advisors.
Illness and holiday: what now?
Suppose you are on holiday and fall ill, or you are ill and wish to go on holiday. In both cases, you are obliged to inform your employer and possibly the company doctor. If you become ill while on holiday, you must report your illness. It is advisable to confirm this in writing as well. From that moment, your holiday days are no longer deducted and are converted into sick days. This means that you will continue to receive your salary as described above.
Maternity, paternity, and parental leave
If you are pregnant or have recently become a parent, you will also encounter various forms of leave to which you are entitled, such as maternity leave, childbirth leave, paternity leave, and parental leave. In our 'Work, Pregnancy & Parenthood' brochure and on the website of the Dutch government you will find all the information about this and answers to the most frequently asked questions.
Are you pregnant? In addition to the statutory maternity and childbirth leave of a total of 16 weeks, you are entitled to 2 extra weeks of paid leave based on the CLA recreation. You can choose whether to take these 2 weeks before or after your childbirth.
As a partner, you are also entitled to leave after the birth of your child. The official term for this is paternity leave. The duration of paternity leave is equal to the number of working hours per week. Paternity leave is paid at 100%. However, you must take this leave within the first 4 weeks after the birth of the child. After that, you are entitled to 5 weeks (5 times the number of working hours per week) of additional paternity leave. This leave must be taken within 6 months after the birth of the child and is paid at 70% (up to 70% of the maximum daily salary) by the UWV. However, you must first have taken the 5 days of paternity leave.
From 2 August 2022, an additional 9 weeks of paid parental leave has been added. During this leave, you receive 70% of your salary. Your employer can apply for a benefit from the UWV for this. This leave must be taken within a year after the birth of the child and is flexibly deployable. For example, it is possible to take a few hours per day, spread over several weeks. Check art. 26 of the CLA for additional provisions in the CLA recreation.
Short-term care leave
Short-term care leave is intended to provide necessary care for a few days to, for example, (foster) children, the partner, or parents. The condition is that the sick person needs care. And you are, given the circumstances, the only one who can provide the care. Can someone else take on the care? Then you are not entitled to short-term care leave. For someone who, for example, is in hospital, you usually cannot take short-term care leave. Because the sick person is already receiving care.
Based on the CLA recreation, you may take up to 3 times your weekly working hours per calendar year. So a maximum of 15 days. The first week you receive your salary at 100%. The second and third weeks you receive your salary at 70%. The 30% you miss can be made up later with working hours. Or you can surrender statutory holiday days or accrued compensatory time.
Long-term care leave
You can take long-term care leave if you need to care for someone who is terminally ill or if you need to provide necessary care for someone who is ill or in need of help. You may take up to 6 times your weekly working hours within 12 months.
If you work 32 hours per week, this means you can take up to 192 hours of long-term care leave. You apply for the leave at least 2 weeks in advance with your employer. You do this in a letter or e-e-mail. Your employer agrees to your request unless the company experiences serious problems due to the leave. During the leave, you do not receive a salary.
Paid leave
If you work in recreation, you are entitled to paid leave under certain personal circumstances. This is also known as special leave. Your employer is obliged to grant you leave, but you will still receive your salary. Special leave applies according to the CLA for example:
- The death of your partner or (step)child: from the day of death until one day after the funeral
- The death of one of the (in-law) parents, brother, (in-law) sister, brother-in-law: 2 days
- Your marriage or entering into a registered partnership: 2 days
View all special leave in article 24 of the recreation CLA.
Union leave
Do you want to attend national meetings or follow training and Your career courses at employee organisations affiliated with the recreation CLA? Then you can request leave for this. This is called union leave. You are entitled to a maximum of 8 days of union leave per year. The leave is with salary retention.
Are you a union representative? Then you are entitled to a maximum of 11 days of union leave per year, but only if business circumstances allow it. A union representative of the union is a member of the employee organisation that the union has appointed as a representative of members in external and/or internal bodies. Your employer can charge the salary costs to KIKK recreation.
Would you like to help make recreation strong together with other members?
Doctor or dentist visit
If you need to see a doctor, specialist, or dentist during working hours, you get a maximum of 2 hours off. You must be able to prove that this visit can only take place during working hours. Are you away from work for more than 2 hours? Then you can make up these hours at another time in consultation with your employer.
If the visit lasts longer than 2 hours and you can prove that it is not your fault, your employer may decide that you will be paid for more than 2 hours.