The supermarket chain is currently looking for new employees. The recruitment posters state that in addition to the regular salary, staff receive ‘a nice bonus’ if they are not sick. The amount of the bonus is unknown. Hoogvliet does not want to respond to questions from RTL Z.
To Nu.nl, which was the first to write about the bonus, the company says that the bonus has been around since 1998† For example, the company would like to counter what it calls the ‘Monday morning sick report’ and want to prevent others from being saddled with extra work.
Last year, healthcare company Mediq also came up with such a bonus for staff that they worked through employment agency YoungCapital. Anyone who did not call in sick in the last two months of the year received a voucher worth 50 euros. The company wanted to put fit employees in the spotlight, it said.
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But after questions from RTL Z, Mediq stopped. “The fact that the use of this voucher at Mediq raises questions for our flex workers made us realize that the gesture can also be interpreted differently,” said a spokesperson at the time.
Strictly speaking, Hoogvliet may give a bonus to staff who do not call in sick. There is no law that prohibits this, says employment lawyer Maarten van Gelderen to RTL Z.
Lawsuits
“The court has never made a ruling in principle about such schemes. There are rulings about employees who claim such a vitality bonus, but there has never been a fundamental review in a case of employees who find it discriminatory.”
Van Gelderen does think that certain conditions must be attached to such a bonus. “It is of course controversial because you actually punish sick people. You have to prevent people from calling in sick if they really are. So you have to ensure that the bonus is limited in size. If it is very strong, the temptation becomes too big for people who are really sick, especially if they already have a low salary, such as at a supermarket chain.”
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Chronically ill
Hoogvliet will also have to arrange something for chronically ill employees, Van Gelderen thinks. “According to the law, they must be treated equally. Someone who is absent for a few days a month, if you don’t make an exception, could never receive a bonus. That could be discrimination.”
The FNV union is not happy with the health bonus. “No one chooses to be sick,” says Fatma Bugdayci-Karatas of FNV.
“In the supermarket world, the salary is not a fat pot anyway. I can imagine that sick people still go to work and then infect their colleagues or end up being sick for longer. It is better to give a bonus for healthy behaviour. For example, if employees start exercising or become healthier to live.”
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