Extension of employer’s obligation to provide information

A new European directive aims at making working conditions more transparent and predictable. Above all, this means that both employers and employees will have to make more arrangements in employment contracts from 1 August 2022. Employees will also get more rights. What are the key points? What does this mean for existing employment contracts?

The new directive provides employees, including internationally seconded workers, with more rights to information about their working conditions. The conditions themselves are also changing. There are stricter rules for statutory mandatory training; ancillary activities are, in principle, permitted. In this blog we will give you an overview of the changes regarding the obligation to provide information. We will discuss other changes in a separate blog.

Information obligation regarding employment contract

The Dutch Civil Code, article 7:655 paragraph 1 already contains a long list with information that employers must provide to employees in writing or digitally. Normally, this will be done by including them in an employment contract. In a number of cases, regulations can be found in a collective labour agreement to which, then, reference can be made.

The new European directive extends this obligation to provide information. The most important changes can be found below. For the sake of convenience, we will indicate the relevant points from our blog about the obligation to provide information:

1. Employers are no longer required to designate one or more workplaces if employees do not have a fixed workplace. Employers may also indicate that employees work in different places or are free to determine their own place of work (see B).
2. In the event of fixed-term contracts, the end date can be specified instead of the duration (see E).
3. In addition to a holiday entitlement, employers also have to report what other types of paid leave employees are entitled to. And how this entitlement is calculated (see F).
4. Currently, employers are only required to indicate the period of notice of termination and how it is calculated. In the future, employees also have to be familiar with the procedure and requirements for termination. It suffices for the employer to refer to Part 7.10 of the Dutch Civil Code. I.e., for example, the permitted grounds for dismissal do not need to be included separately. In addition, the possibility to choose between specifying the notice period and its calculating will lapse. Only in the event the period of notice cannot be indicated, its calculation method must be given instead (see G).
5. Regarding wages, employers have to give the following information:
   • the instalments in which they will be paid,
   • the amount of the initial salary,
   • the components of the wages, and
   • the manner of payment (see H).
6. Will an employee work abroad for at least four weeks in a row? In that case the employer has to provide the required information. Currently, this is only the case if an employee works abroad for at least one month. The indication of the country or countries where the employee will work will be added to the obligation to provide information (see K).
7. In the event of an agency work employment contract, an employee also needs to know the name of the hirer (see M).
8. Does an employee work completely or for the most part unpredictable times? If this is the case, it must be clearly stated in the employment contract. It must also be stated:
   • For which number of hours payment is guaranteed;
   • What the pay will be for the extra hours worked by the employee;
   • The days and hours the employee can be required to work;
   • The minimum notification period before the on-call time. By law, this is at least 4 days, but this can be deviated from by collective labour agreement, provided that the period is at least 24 hours (see O).
9. In the event of a probationary period, its duration and conditions must be given. Currently, it is only mandatory to state the duration.
10. If the employer offers a right to training, the employees need to know the content and scope of this right.
11. Employers must also provide information about social security. This concerns the identity of social security institutions receiving national insurance contributions and what the employee is insured for, such as incapacity for work, illness and unemployment.
12. In the future, the obligation to provide information will also apply to housekeeping staff working less than four days a week.

Deadlines

Furthermore, the deadlines within which employers must provide information to employees will change. Some key data must be provided within one week after the start of the work. This used to be within one month. In practice, this will eliminate the possibility to comply with the information obligation through the monthly payslip. Changes must even be reported no later than the day on which they take effect. Currently, this is within a period of one month. This does not apply to changes resulting from amended laws and regulations or changes to collective labour agreements.

Existing employment contracts

For existing employment contracts, employers must provide employees with all information that the EU directive requires them to provide within one month of an employees’ request. Of course, insofar as the employer has not already done so.

Seconded workers

If an employer seconds employees to another EU Member State, the employees must receive the following information before their departure:

1. The salary to which the employees are entitled to under the law of the Member State to which they are seconded.
2. All allowances the employees are entitled to based on the secondments and arrangements for the reimbursement of travel, accommodation and meal expenses.
3. The website address with information for seconded workers of the EU Member State to which the employees are seconded.

Prohibition of termination and prohibition on prejudicing

Employers are not allowed to terminate or prejudice employees because they invoke the changed and new sections of law.

Employment lawyers

Do you have any questions regarding these changes? Do you want us to adapt your employment contracts and staff handbook to the new legislation? Please contact us. We will also be happy to assist you in disputes with your staff: