When you feel unable to work, we believe it is important to first take a step back together and look at what is actually going on.
Not every situation where working feels difficult automatically means you are sick.
That is why we first ask you to ask yourself:
Am I actually sick?
Or is something else temporarily making work difficult?
Sometimes situations make working temporarily difficult without there being an actual medical illness.
For example:
In situations like that, it may make more sense to first look together at:
That is why we always ask employees to also look at:
Not because we do not take situations seriously — quite the opposite.
But because not everything immediately needs to become a formal medical process.
Being sick does not automatically mean someone cannot do any work at all.
Sometimes someone:
But that does not automatically mean no suitable work is possible.
That is why Knikkers Uitzendwerk will always first look at whether:
We believe it is important that both employee and employer look together at what is still possible.
When suitable replacement work is available, we expect employees to reasonably cooperate with this.
Refusing suitable replacement work may affect possible sickness payment.
Being sick does not automatically mean:
being completely unable to perform any work at all.
We therefore believe Knikkers should always first have the opportunity to offer suitable alternative work before full incapacity for work is assumed.
Are you genuinely sick and unable to work?
Then we expect you to report sick as soon as possible.
We take sickness seriously. That means we take our responsibilities as an employer seriously, but we also expect employees to handle sickness reports responsibly and remain reachable during sickness.
We follow:
| Article | What your agreement says | What we expect |
|---|---|---|
| 12.1 | This Agreement is entered into on the condition that the Employee is in a state of health that allows them to perform the work normally. | During your intake, we discuss whether the job is a good fit for you. If there are any reasons why you may not be able to do the work, or may need to do it differently, let us know in advance. If you are unable to do the work, we first look at whether there are circumstances we can help solve together. Please also review our "What's keeping me up at night" policy. If that does not apply, we will look at whether suitable alternative work is available. |
| 12.2 | The Employee must report any incapacity for work to both the Employer and the Client on the first day of illness, as early as possible and in any case before the start of the scheduled work. In all cases, the Employee must report their illness to the Employer before 10:00 a.m. | If you are unable to work due to illness, report this to two parties: us and the work location. This ensures everyone knows where they stand and allows us to process your sickness notification properly. After your sickness notification, we first assess together whether our "What's keeping me up at night" policy is a better fit for your situation. If not, we will look at whether alternative or suitable work is available. |
| 12.3 | If the Employee becomes ill during the workday, the Employee must contact the Employer before leaving the workplace. | If you leave work during your shift because of illness, you must first inform your team leader at the work location and us. You do not leave without letting people know. It's the proper thing to do and prevents misunderstandings. |
| 12.4 | When reporting sick, the Employee must provide the correct residential or nursing address and correct contact details. If the Employee changes address during the period of incapacity for work (for example due to hospital admission or discharge), the Employee must notify the Employer within 24 hours. | If you are sick, we assume you are staying at the home address we have on file. Staying somewhere else or travelling abroad must be discussed with us beforehand. Let us know where you are staying and how we can reach you. It's actually very simple: discuss it first, then get approval if needed. Do not make decisions on your own and expect us to approve them afterwards. If, because of your actions, we are unable to carry out the sickness absence process or unable to contact you, we will consider this an unauthorised absence. In that case, you will not be entitled to sickness-related payments for as long as the absence process cannot be properly followed. |
| 12.5 | One waiting day applies in the event of illness. Sick pay will be paid in accordance with Article 25 paragraphs 1, 6, 7 and 8 of the applicable Collective Labour Agreement (CAO). | In the event of sickness, we apply a waiting day before sick pay starts. In some situations, additional waiting days may apply under the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO). You can find detailed calculations and examples on our calculation page. |
| 12.6 | During illness, the Employee must remain reachable by telephone for the Employer, the occupational health officer and the company doctor. They must also be given the opportunity to visit the Employee at home or at the nursing address. | If you are sick, we, the occupational health officer or the company doctor may contact you. Make sure you are reachable and answer your phone when we call. If you enter a formal sickness absence process, formal communication is part of that process. Ghosting us or ignoring calls and messages is not acceptable. Communicating only by email, WhatsApp or direct messages is also not acceptable; phone contact is the default. We must be able to communicate with you in order to properly manage the sickness absence process. |
| 12.7 | The Employee must comply with any request to attend an appointment with the company doctor or a specialist appointed by the occupational health service. If the Employee has resumed work before the appointment takes place, the Employee must contact the occupational health service and ask whether attendance is still required. Any costs resulting from failure to attend an appointment may be recovered from the Employee. | If you are in a formal sickness absence process, you are expected to attend appointments with the occupational health service or company doctor. An appointment will be scheduled, and we expect you to attend. We follow the guidance and decisions of the company doctor, and we expect you to do the same. If you fail to attend appointments or do not cooperate with the process, we consider this direct non-compliance with the sickness absence process. This may sound strict, but sickness absence places a significant burden on our organisation. We want you to recover, we cover the costs involved, and we organise the support needed. In return, we expect you to attend appointments and cooperate with the process. If you have something better to do than attend an appointment with the company doctor, we take that as a clear signal that a formal sickness absence process is not the right solution. In that case, we will immediately stop the sickness absence process, recover the costs of the missed appointment from you, and continue with normal business operations. We are intentionally strict about this. We all share a responsibility to use the limited capacity of company doctors and occupational health services responsibly. Missing appointments creates unnecessary pressure on a system intended for people who are actively participating in their recovery and support process. |
| 12.8 | Op de dag dat Werknemer de werkzaamheden hervat, meldt Werknemer zich voor 10.00 uur ’s ochtends hersteld bij Werkgever. | Let us know when you have recovered and from which date you are available to work again. This way, we know we can count on you again and can schedule you for work. |
If you are sick and unable to work, you must report sick:
You must also notify the client where you were scheduled to work.
When reporting sick, please let us know:
Please always provide:
Does your address change during sickness? For example because of hospital admission or temporary stay somewhere else? Then please inform us within 24 hours.
If you become sick during your shift, please contact Knikkers before leaving the workplace.
We would like to understand what is happening and look together at what makes sense.
During sickness we expect you to remain reachable for:
That means:
In some situations, a home visit by the occupational health service or company doctor may take place.
If you are invited by the company doctor or occupational health service, we expect you to attend the appointment.
Have you already recovered before the appointment takes place?
Then please contact the occupational health service yourself to check whether the appointment is still necessary.
If you fail to attend without a valid reason, any costs may be charged to you.
Feeling better and able to work again?
Then report recovered to Knikkers before 10:00 AM on the day you recover.
This allows us to:
Waiting days may apply during sickness.
This means that one or more of the first sickness days may not be paid, depending on:
Any further payment will then be based on:
You can read more about this here:
We believe sickness should be taken seriously.
But we also believe good cooperation is built on:
That is why we try to approach sickness absence in a way that is both professional and human.
