When an employee reports sick, the employer has various obligations regarding absence management and reintegration. The occupational health physician plays an important role in this. The employer must report a sick leave to the occupational health service or company doctor in good time and cannot decide for itself whether an employee is unfit for work and what options exist for returning to work.
Two recent rulings show that engaging a company doctor is not an optional step, as employees went to court because their employer had failed to do so.
When must a company doctor be engaged?
An employer must report a sick employee to the occupational health service or company doctor within one week at the latest. If the absence continues for longer, the company doctor must draw up a problem analysis by the sixth week of illness at the latest. This assesses, among other things, what options the employee still has to work and what steps are needed for recovery and reintegration. The employer and employee then jointly draw up a plan of action no later than two weeks after that.
The employer remains responsible for the employee’s reintegration during the first two years of illness. Progress must be evaluated regularly, and where necessary it must be investigated whether adjusting the employee’s own role, other suitable work within the organisation, or ultimately reintegration with a different employer is possible.
Two recent proceedings show that an employee can, if necessary, enforce compliance with these obligations through the courts.
Employer must register employee with occupational health service within five days
In summary proceedings before the subdistrict court in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, one of the issues was whether an employment relationship still existed between the parties. The employee had worked for the employer for several years under various employment contracts. In March 2026, he left for an extended stay in China. While there, he was involved in a car accident on 8 May 2026 and reported sick on 10 May 2026.
The employer, however, took the position that the employee had resigned before his departure. From April 2026, the employee no longer received wages, and after his sick leave he was not called in by a company doctor either.
The subdistrict court did not follow the employer’s position. Given the way the parties had previously handled the employee’s longer trips, it could not be assumed, in the court’s view, that the employee had genuinely intended to terminate the employment contract. Moreover, a chain-of-contracts arrangement meant a contract for an indefinite period had by then arisen. The employment relationship therefore still existed.
This also meant the employer had to comply with its reintegration obligations. The subdistrict court therefore ordered the employer to register the employee with an occupational health service within five days of service of the judgment, to comply with all statutory reintegration obligations, and, as soon as possible, to allow him to resume his own work or suitable reintegration work.
Notably, the employer argued in these proceedings that the employee himself had failed to comply with his reintegration obligations. That defence did not succeed. After all, the employer had never registered the employee with a company doctor in the first place, meaning the employee had never actually been given the opportunity to cooperate with a reintegration process.
Oost-Brabant District Court, 24 August 2026, ECLI:NL:RBOBR:2026:6011
Company doctor to be engaged under penalty of a fine
The subdistrict court in Arnhem was also recently presented with a case in which no company doctor had been engaged.
The employee had been employed as a financial manager since April 2022 and had been unfit for work since 4 December 2025. In addition to a dispute over payment of wages and holiday allowance, the employee claimed that he had not been referred to a company doctor by his employer since reporting sick.
The employer did not appear in the proceedings, resulting in a default judgment. The subdistrict court granted the claim to engage a company doctor and attached a substantial penalty to it.
The employer was ordered to engage a company doctor within 48 hours of service of the judgment, subject to a penalty of EUR 250 per day or part thereof, up to a maximum of EUR 100,000. The employee’s wage claims were also granted, among other things.
Gelderland District Court, 16 July 2026, ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2026:6624
What does this mean for employers?
These rulings emphasise that engaging an occupational health service or company doctor is an essential part of an employer’s statutory absence management and reintegration obligations.
An employer cannot itself decide whether an employee is genuinely unfit for work or what tasks they can still perform during their illness. That assessment falls within the remit of the company doctor. It is therefore important that a sick leave is reported promptly and that the employee is genuinely given access to a company doctor.
Failing to engage a company doctor in good time can cause problems not only when the UWV (Employee Insurance Agency) ultimately assesses reintegration efforts. As these rulings show, an employee can also go to court during their employment to enforce compliance with reintegration obligations, which can even result in a penalty payment being imposed.
Engaging a company doctor in good time is therefore not only a statutory obligation, but also in the employer’s own interest. A reintegration process that starts on time and is carefully built up increases the chance of a return to work and prevents disputes later on about whether the reintegration obligations were sufficiently met.
Do you have questions about illness, reintegration, or the obligations of employers and employees during incapacity for work? Please feel free to contact one of our employment lawyers.
