Below is an overview of the employment-law changes taking effect in August 2022.
Paid parental leave
Currently, there is no statutory right to paid parental leave in the Netherlands. This will change from August 2022. Following an EU directive, the Paid Parental Leave Act was drawn up, and has since been adopted by parliament.
The key change is the statutory right to paid parental leave. Until now, employees were only entitled to this if it was arranged in their employment contract or CLA. From August 2022, parents will get nine weeks of paid parental leave. During this leave, parents receive a benefit from the UWV. Parents are entitled to a benefit of 50% of their daily wage, up to a maximum of 50% of the maximum daily wage. Note that the bill included an option to raise the benefit to 70% of the daily wage. The Senate has since adopted a motion urging the government to implement this increase. The benefit is expected to become 70% of the daily wage (up to a maximum of 50% of the maximum daily wage).
Implementation of the EU Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive
The European directive on transparent and predictable working conditions has been set out in a bill.
Side-activities clause
The bill includes a new article on the validity of a side-activities clause. Side activities are work carried out elsewhere during the employment. The new Section 7:653a of the Dutch Civil Code starts from the premise that a clause prohibiting side activities outside existing working hours is void.
An employee may therefore hold several jobs at once. Side work may not be prohibited unless such restrictions can be justified on an “objective ground”. Employers can still include a side-activities clause in the employment contract, provided there is a justification for it. This justification does not need to be stated in the employment contract itself. The European directive gives the following examples of possible objective grounds:
- health and safety;
- protecting the confidentiality of business information;
- avoiding conflicts of interest;
- the integrity of public services.
These grounds are not exhaustive.
In practice, a side-activities clause requiring the employer’s consent to work for someone else is common. Once the directive is transposed, refusing that consent will only be allowed if the employer has a justification for it and states this on the employee’s request.
Expanded duty to inform
The employer’s existing duty to inform, set out in Section 7:655 of the Dutch Civil Code, is expanded in the bill. In short, after the employment starts, the employer must inform the employee about: the place of work, training policy, leave entitlements, the formal aspects of ending the employment contract, how wages are built up, and, where applicable, the probationary period. Information must also be provided about working hours. New is that the bill distinguishes between wholly or largely unpredictable working hours and wholly or largely predictable working hours. Different rules on the employer’s duty to inform apply to each.
We are happy to review your standard employment contract for you on request.
For the bill, click here (in Dutch). For our earlier blog on the new rules on training costs and side activities, click here (in Dutch).
Would you like more information on the upcoming changes, or would you like your standard employment contracts updated? Please contact one of Sørensen Advocaten’s employment lawyers. Call: +31 (0)10-2492444
