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In general an occupational disease is defined as a disease, the causes of which lie primarily in working conditions. For some diseases this link is clear: for example, silicosis in miners. With other diseases it is difficult to establish a link between work and disease: for example, lung cancer caused by exposure to a carcinogenic substance.
Employees who are the victim of occupational diseases can request compensation for the injury suffered (medical expenses, loss of earnings due to an incapacity to work or limited capacity). The awarding of compensation can be regulated in various ways. In Belgium a joint and several system was chosen, whereby the Fonds des Maladies Professionnelles (FMP) (Fund for Occupational Diseases) is financed from social security. The task of the FMP is to determine who is suffering from an occupational disease within the framework of the law and consequently who is entitled to compensation.
For a disease to be recognised, it must be included in the list of recognised occupational diseases.
To qualify for compensation, three conditions must be satisfied:
- the employee must be included in the group of workers covered by the legislation;
- he or she must be suffering from an occupational disease (e.g. silicosis);
- and he or she must be exposed to the occupational risk associated with this occupational disease (e.g. coal dust or asbestos).
The causal link between the disease and the exposure need not be proven in the list system, but simply be legally suspected.
The occupational disease list was inadequate for all occupational diseases to be recognised and therefore compensated. For a number of existing diseases a link with working conditions was subsequently found, and so new occupational diseases were created. Sometimes inadequate scientific information is put forward to have these new diseases recognised. A compromise has thus been found with the 'open system'.
In this open system anyone can submit a request for recognition to the FMP for any occupational disease that does not appear on the occupational diseases list.
The open system adds a fourth condition to the three applied in the list system: the victim must himself provide evidence of the causal link between the disease and the exposure to the risk. In other words, the disease must have its determining and direct cause in the performance of the job. If, for example, someone wants to have back complaints recognised as an occupational disease, this person must be able to prove that his or her work and only that work caused the back complaints. Hereditary factors, leisure activities, etc. may not form the basis of the complaints.
The fact that it is often impossible to provide such evidence is clear from, among other things, the recognition statistics. This is the weakness of the open system.
If an occupational disease is recognised as such, this gives rise to a number of possible compensations:
- after the death of the victim;
- for temporary incapacity to work;
- for permanent incapacity to work;
- for temporary or lasting removal from the hazardous working environment;
- a proportion of the costs of medical care;
- measures provided by the FMP, e.g. Hepatitis B vaccinations.
Text last edited on: 08/2006
Source: European Union
© European Communities, 1995-2007
Reproduction is authorised.
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