Stricter legislation
• The PEMBA act (1 January 1998). This act differentiates employer-paid premiums, encouraging employers to prevent or reduce sickness absence and incapacity within their company as much as possible.
• The Gatekeeper Act (1 April 2002), stimulating employers and employees to intervene earlier in the disablement process and to get the employee back to work as quickly as possible for as many hours as possible, thus preventing claims for disablement benefit.
• Extension of the requirement for employers to continue paying the wages of incapacitated employees (1 January 2004). Employers now have to continue paying an incapacitated employee’s wages for the first two years of absence, instead of the first year.