Changes in collective bargaining agreement for temporary workers

As plans currently stand, there will be several changes to the ABU and NBBU collective bargaining agreements around Jan. 1, 2022.

Phase A/1-2

This goes back from 78 to 52 weeks, with 2022 being a transitional year. Agreements entered into in 2021 still fall under the old regime until December 31, 2022. Agreements starting as of Jan. 3, 2022 fall under the new regime.

Phase B/3

Stage B/3 is going down from 4 to 3 years. The SER opinion assumes of a phase B/3 period of 2 years. The parties are still discussing this.
2022 will be a transition year. Phase B/3 agreements entered into in 2021 will keep a 4-year term. Phase B/3 agreements starting Jan. 3, 2022 will fall under the new 3-year term.
In phase B/3, as now, a maximum of 6 contracts may be concluded.
An exception applies to Phase B/3 contracts entered into in 2021 with a term extending beyond Jan. 1, 2023, as they will remain subject to the current 4-year Phase B/3 term of application.

Hirer compensation

The hirer compensation will be expanded by several elements in the future. Starting in 2022, it will be the case for one-time benefits and work-at-home allowances.

One-time benefits

Currently, it is still the case that the lump sum payment is only required to be granted to temporary workers working under the Construction & Infra-collective bargaining agreement. As of 2022, this for all temporary workers. One-time benefits, for example, often come for when, with some delay, a new collective bargaining agreement is concluded. Then you regularly see that the elapsed period during which there was thus no wage increase is compensated with a one-time payment. The "care bonus" due to the corona crisis also falls under the term "one-time payments." A thirteenth month and (year-end) bonus are not included in the one-time payments. One-time benefits can lead to unpleasant discussions with clients in various situations. An example of this can be read in the aforementioned article on one-time payments in the Construction Industry.

Home work allowances

As compensation is provided at the hirer for working from home, temporary workers are also entitled to this allowance.

Migrant Workers

The most important change is, that the labor migrant coming to the Netherlands for the first time is entitled to the full-time WML during the first two months, regardless of whether or not there are not full-time is worked on. An exception can be made for short-term projects, but then there are special requirements for the formation of the contract. There is also talk of preventing the accumulation of debt before work begins and a reasonable period of probably four weeks that the migrant must be given to leave housing after the end of employment.

Unworkable weather

As of October 1, 2021, a regulation for unworkable weather will be included in the Temporary Employment Agreement. This will put an end to the situation that arose after the "Scheme unworkable weather" was created. Several conditions will be attached to the regulation of unworkable weather as it will be included in the Temporary Employment Agreement.

Sustainable employability

Additional investment in innovative labor market projects is planned. In recent years, the SFU premium has fluctuated between 0.5% and the (maximum) 0.2% of the wage. The bet is that this premium will henceforth be set at 0.2%.

StiPP pension

The changes effective Jan. 1, 2022, relate to the reference period and pensionable earnings.

Reference period

The waiting period of 26 worked weeks is reduced to 8 worked weeks.

Basis

From 2022, the sv wage will be the basis for the StiPP base. Exceptions are the fiscal addition of the lease car and the exchange of employment conditions, the so-called ET-exchange. As now, pension premium will therefore have to be paid on the salary before the ET-exchange.

An important change in the new basis is that from now on pension premiums must be paid on overtime wages (because that is also SS wages) and also on the supplementary part of the wages for irregular hours and shifts. Until now, no pension premium was due on that part of the salary.

Pension contribution over reserves

Temporary employment agencies now have the choice of paying the pension premium over the reserves when accruing or when the reserves are paid out. It seems obvious that in the new situation this choice option will be dropped and that the basis must always be the sv wage paid out. The advantage of this is that verification of the correct basis will become much more transparent. The question is what is going to happen for the staffing agencies that currently make pension contributions as reserves accrue. If there no transitional measures are taken, then it becomes an expensive business for those employment agencies. In 2021 they are already paying pension premium on the accrual of the reserves and then there will be another due when those same reserves are paid out in 2022. Let's hope the StiPP thinks about this carefully and comes up with a suitable solution.

How to apply.

In addition to these changes, there are undoubtedly other changes coming your way as of Jan. 1, 2022. Are you curious about how to implement these changes smartly and properly? Please feel free to contact with us.