do you have to answer calls while sick in the netherlands? case law explained

You read my last blog… and thought: “But, I just want to keep communication with my employer at Teams”

After my previous blog on reachability, I often get this one:

👉 “I am responding… just via email or Teams. That should be enough, because I am focusing on recovery and I don’t feel ready enough to communicate with my employer”

My very short answer to that statement: courts and UWV generally don’t agree.

Let’s look at what actually happens when this ends up in a legal file.

The legal baseline (quick refresher)

Under Wet verbetering poortwachter you are required to: actively cooperate with your reintegration. And before you start hating me and saying that ‘you do cooperate with your employer’, do read this:

👉 It’s not about whether you communicate. It’s about how effective that communication is

What case law consistently shows (if you don’t want to take my word for it).

Dutch case law doesn’t care about your preferred communication channel. No, there isn’t a line that literally says: “Thou shalt not use Teams only.”

But what it does say is:

👉 Did your behaviour support or obstruct reintegration?
👉 Was your attitude active and constructive?

And this is exactly where “Teams or email only” starts to wobble. (Sorry.)

Still not convinced? Go have a look at the case law yourself 👇

ECLI:NL:CRVB:2011:BR030
ECLI:NL:CRVB:2011:BR0301
ECLI:NL:CRVB:2017:1406
ECLI:NL:CRVB:2020:1604

Case line 1: limiting communication = insufficient cooperation

In multiple rulings, employees argued: “I responded to emails, so I cooperated.”

Courts look beyond that. Especially if:

Calls are avoided
Meetings are refused
Dialogue is limited to written replies

Courts tend to conclude that this is not sufficient cooperation. Because reintegration requires interaction, not just information exchange.

Case line 2: refusing meetings after bedrijfsarts advice

This is where it becomes legally heavier.

Bedrijfsarts advises contact between employer and employee (it’s either written down as: ‘have a conversations about work related factors‘ or ‘intervention is advised = mediation’).
Employee continues with email-only communication

The court reasoned as following:

👉 You are not following reintegration guidance

And that leads to:

👉 Non-cooperation under Wet verbetering poortwachter

This is often the tipping point in cases and could lead to – for example – no rights on subsidy after 104 weeks of illness.

What this means in practice

Let’s translate case law into human language:

👉 You cannot reduce reintegration to a message thread.

Even if:

You respond
You stay polite
You keep everything documented

If you avoid real interaction, courts may still qualify this as non-cooperative behaviour (and to be completely fair, I – as a sick leave manager – will conclude the same).

So… what are the consequences truly?

Separate from the legal side for a second…if you handle it this way, you’re also shaping your relationship with your employer in a pretty negative direction.

And that tends to show up quickly in ways such as conversations get tense and all of a sudden legal is involved too, making the trust drop and.. Everything starts getting documented.

And here’s the part people don’t always say out loud:

👉 Once trust weakens, companies may start actively managing you out.

Not always, but often enough. And trust me.. I have done it more than once.

From there, it can escalate into:

👉 Salary being put on hold
👉 Your file building up for legal purposes in the future.
👉 A weaker position later on (hello UWV) where you no longer receive the right to an WIA-subsidy.

All because it starts to look like you’re not really engaging in the process.

The nuance (because yes, there is some)

You are not required to:

Be available 24/7
Accept every call immediately
Engage in unreasonable communication

But you are required to engage in normal, reasonable interaction

And case law makes one thing very clear:

👉 “Email only” is usually not enough.

Not sure how your situation would be judged?

Because this is exactly the kind of thing that feels fine now but shows up later in a file.

👉 DM or use the contact form. Because it is always better to test it now than defend it later.