More flexible relationship: ball is in collective bargaining parties' court

Companies in the construction industry prefer to employ workers on flexible contracts. Many companies prefer to enter into multiple fixed-term employment contracts rather than indefinite employment contracts. This allows the construction company to respond well to the amount of work and the seasons, such as less or no work in winter. With the introduction of the Work and Security Act on July 1, 2015, the conclusion of fixed-term employment contracts has been "curbed," leaving an employee to become a permanent employee relatively quickly or the parties not to continue the employment relationship.

Indefinite time

Thus, until July 1, 2015, it was still possible to conclude three fixed-term employment contracts, provided that this chain did not exceed 36 months. If the series of employment contracts lasted longer than 36 months and/or the parties concluded four fixed-term employment contracts, the last employment contract was considered an indefinite term employment contract.

The chain could be broken by inserting an interval of three months and one day. Since July 1, 2015, parties can still conclude three employment contracts, but this series may not exceed the duration of 24 months. The interim period has been extended from three to six months. Furthermore, it remains possible to enter into a temporary employment contract for, say, four years if a project is that size. Many employers mistakenly believe that this is no longer possible.

Intermediate

The new chain rule has caused a lot of resistance: especially among weather-dependent companies. These companies often had as an arrangement that the employee had a nine-month employment contract, after which the employee would leave employment for three months and one day (usually in the winter months) to return to work after that period.

For these companies, the aforementioned extended interim period of six months creates problems. After all, a company is reluctant to insert an interim period of six months and one day, when the (winter) season in which no work can be performed lasts only three months.

Entering into an indefinite employment contract is also not an option; after all, the company is then faced with an employee who is not performing work but is receiving wages.

Adaptation

Minister Asscher, too, has now realized that the current chain arrangement is not suitable for many seasonal/weather-related businesses. For this reason, he has announced his intention to make a more flexible employment relationship possible (again).

By collective bargaining agreement, the interim period of six months may (again) be shortened to a period of at least three months. This will be made possible only for positions within the sectors in which:

1. Operations are characterized by dependence on climatic and natural conditions;
2. Allowing work to be performed for up to nine months per year.

This derogation option will therefore only be possible for certain sectors and functions. How construction companies can benefit from this remains to be seen and depends on what collective bargaining parties agree on.

In any case, Minister Asscher aims to introduce the derogation option by July 1, 2016. After that, the ball is in the collective bargaining parties' court. Hopefully, they will include this in their upcoming negotiations, so that the flexibility to respond to (weather) conditions and other (seasonal) influences will be somewhat increased again.