New accountability levy for employers
May 2022 – The government has introduced, through the programme law passed at the end of 2021, a new accountability levy for employers faced with an excessive flow of workers on disability.
Fewer long-term sick
In October 2021, the federal government published an action plan to reduce the number of long-term sick. To achieve this goal, it introduced
a reduction in the benefit paid to long-term sick workers who refuse to cooperate with a reintegration plan;
a waiting period for employers who wish to terminate an employment contract on the grounds of force majeure to allow a reintegration pathway to be put in place; and
a payroll-based sanction for companies with more than 49 employees who have an excessive number of employees on long-term incapacity in any one quarter - the accountability levy.
Which employers, which workers?
The new contribution applies only to private sector employers who fall within the scope of the Act of 5 December 1968 on collective labour agreements and joint committees. Employers with fewer than 50 employees are exempt.
As far as workers are concerned, the law provides for several rules:
firstly, only periods of invalidity starting from 1 January 2022 are to be taken into account;
secondly, for the calculation of the number of disabled workers, no account is taken of workers who, at the date of the onset of the disability, have a work authorization issued by the mutual insurance company;
thirdly, to determine total employment, no account is taken of workers who, in the fourth quarter preceding that in which the invalidity began (presented as Q-4), had less than three consecutive years of service in the company.
Excessive flow
The contribution is therefore due when there is an excessive flow. How is this excess flow calculated? To make this calculation, account is taken of the number of employees in the company who became disabled during the last year (the number of people who became disabled). This number is compared with the average in the same sector of activity and in all private sector companies.
As this is a quarterly contribution, this calculation must be made every quarter. It consists of comparing the average of the ratios of entries into invalidity in quarter Q (the quarter in which the invalidity begins) and in each of the three preceding quarters to total employment in each of the corresponding quarters of the previous calendar year. This average is then compared to the average for companies in the same industry and to the average for the general private sector. If your company's average is higher, there is an excess flow.
The extent to which the average for the business sector and the private sector is exceeded has not yet been determined.
The contribution is therefore not yet due.
Amount of the responsibility contribution
The programme law set the amount of the responsibility contribution at 0,625% of the wage bill subject to social security contributions during the quarter preceding that in which the disability began.
For the calculation of the wage bill, the following workers are not taken into account
workers under 18 years of age
workers aged 55 or over; and
workers with less than three consecutive years of service in the company.
The contribution is collected at the same time as the ordinary social security contributions for the second quarter following the quarter in which the disability began.
Warning
The programme law also gives the NSSO the task of warning companies whose average number of new cases of invalidity is developing unfavourably and which are therefore at risk of being subject to the contribution, so that they can still put in place measures to limit the flow of workers entering invalidity.
