Sick return interview
The patient return call or return call comprises one or more conversations that a supervisor leads a sufferers to return to work. The talks should help to clarify the reasons for the illness. It is important for a company to be clear about the advantages and disadvantages of such a conversation in advance, to develop appropriate guidelines and, above all, to train the superiors and managers in detail. Return interviews take place both in the public sector and in the private sector . At Adam Opel GmbH , the return talks are known as the settler talks . Here the discussions take place after a day's absence due to illness.
The works council has a right of co-determination in order to safeguard the interests of employees.
aims
The aim of such a conversation should be to identify possible causes of the illness in the workplace and then to remove them in order to prevent a new illness. According to the trade union ver.di , the employer is more concerned with “finding out more details about the illness and its future effects”, with the aim of “ reducing the number of sick leave among the workforce and thus saving costs”. If necessary, according to ver.di, pressure will be exerted on individual employees concerned and, if necessary, in the event of a subsequent downsizing, the information disclosed in medical interviews will be U. used, as well as in the preparation of dismissals due to illness.
Private reasons for illness are part of the private sphere, are subject to the employee's personal rights and do not have to be disclosed to the employer. If, on the other hand, the reasons for the illness are possibly related to the employment relationship - for example in an accident at work, in materials that are hazardous to health at the workplace or in a psychologically stressful working atmosphere - the employer has a legitimate interest in finding out more about the causes of the illness. If necessary, the works council must be involved.
Creative freedom
The return conversation can take very different forms. It ranges from assistance and care to controls and sanctions. An escalative discussion model achieved u. a. Great short-term effects on absenteeism at Adam Opel GmbH . It should be noted, however, that the sustainability and theoretical considerations were not checked. Many executives criticize the knowledge gained in such event-related discussions. The employee regards the occasion as a deviation from the norm and the unequal power relationships rather block the cause research. Modern approaches therefore advocate integrating the topic of absenteeism more strongly into the employee appraisal or rather addressing employees situationally about the causes of their illness. Too much fixation on absenteeism, e.g. B. through bonus programs that reward presence, however, does not lead to health maintenance, but rather to presenterism .
Before a return meeting, employees must be informed that they do not need to provide any information about the causes of illness or diagnoses.
Workplace-related causes of the disease can be:
- Workload
- Workplace ergonomics
- working hours
- Trouble with the manager
- Trouble with a colleague
- Trouble with customers
- lack of support
- high time pressure
- overall high stress levels
- Long sitting activities
- Temperature change
- Drafts
Co-determination of the works council (Germany)
The Federal Labor Court (BAG) has decided on the German works constitution law that the systematic implementation of sick return talks or similar measures with the same objective is subject to the co-determination of the works council in accordance with Section 87 (1) No. 1 BetrVG.
- BAG decision of November 8, 1994 - 1 ABR 22/94 - NZA 1995, 857: discussions with about 30 employees in a department with a noticeably high sickness rate (in the veneer plant of a wood processing company);
- BAG decision of January 27, 1997 - 1 ABR 53/96 - AP No. 27 to § 87 BetrVG 1972 Regulations of the company = NZA 1997, 785: The employer had issued a detailed questionnaire to employees who were unable to work on the medical causes of the inability to work with the request to present this to the doctor who is on the sick note and then fill it in and return it.
According to Section 87 (1) No. 1 BetrVG, the works council has a say in matters relating to "issues relating to the organization of the company and the conduct of employees in the company". This is primarily understood to mean those regulations that the employer draws up in order to regulate the coexistence of employees in the company, i.e. typically those regulations that are to be expected in office rules, works rules or house rules. Typical examples of this are regulations on smoking or non-smoking, on the “dishwashing service” in the office kitchen or on using the company parking lot. The right of participation does not only intervene when the employer wants to regulate the coexistence of colleagues among each other, but also when he sets up rules of conduct to enforce his own interests that everyone must adhere to, such as the instruction to use a time clock or himself to have the bags checked at the gate ("gate controls"). Following on from this expanded understanding of participation law, the BAG says in the cited resolutions that whenever the employer thinks about a system for return talks, which he wants to use in general in a large number of cases in the future, he will use it to regulate the behavior of employees in the company . Therefore, the works council has a say. Afterwards, however, there is still no co-determination for the return meeting in individual cases.
The works council should use the participation to protect the employee's confidentiality as much as possible (for example by clearly indicating that any information on the medical causes of the incapacity for work is voluntary). Incidentally, a system of patient return talks can also provide information that is in the interests of the works council, such as references to links between illness and work.
In the public service , the above statements apply mutatis mutandis to the participation rights of the staff council on the basis of the applicable staff representation law .
swell
- ↑ a b patient return talks. (No longer available online.) Ver.di b + b, archived from the original on March 23, 2014 ; accessed on March 23, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Ingo Weinreich, Christian Weigl: Corporate advice on occupational health protection management: Basics - methods - personal skills , 2011, ISBN 978-3503130573
