[Work incapacity within the scope of rehabilitation]

The concept of incapacity for work has been defined by a number of court decision. These have, also, considerably widened the originally narrow concept of disease as the cause of incapacity for work, to cover for example hospital diagnostic procedures, elimination of a congenital defect in view of health improvement or prevention of adverse psychic sequelae, addiction, mental disorders, and so on. In cases of step-wise return to working, the incapable-to-work status continues to apply, as in the event of an unsuccessful trial to resume working. When an illness occurs during participation in a retraining programme, incapacity for work is not determined in terms of the former occupation but in the context of the demands posed by the vocational retraining being attended.