Understaffing in your manufacturing company: are you looking out?

The number of jobs is growing, but the supply of labor is not growing along with it. Many companies are experiencing problems from the tight labor market. Employers are trying to attract and retain staff by offering higher salaries, bonuses and other favorable working conditions. This battle is also going on within the manufacturing industry.

To prevent production lines from grinding to a halt, more and more limits are being pushed. This also applies to what is required of incumbent personnel. This can lead to overburdening and overloading of these employees, as well as creating safety risks with employer liability. Pauline Demacker and Bas Blaauwhof write in this blog about your duty of care towards your staff in times of understaffing in manufacturing companies.

Duty of Care

As an employer, you have a duty of care for the health and safety of your employees. You are required to take such measures and provide such instructions as are reasonably necessary to prevent your employee from being harmed in the performance of their duties. This is a high standard, but you do not have to provide an absolute guarantee. After all, not all harm can be eliminated.

The duty of care refers only to the protection that can reasonably be required of you as an employer. To assess what can be required of you as an employer, the circumstances of the case must be considered. Relevant circumstances are:

🏭 the nature of the work;
🏭 the knowability of the hazard;
🏭 the likelihood of realization and the severity of the consequences; and
🏭 how objectionable the measures to be taken are.

Thus, employers' duty of care is different in each case.

Dangers of underutilization

Shortage of personnel leads to problems in staffing. As a result, an employer may demand more from employees than would be required of him in a normal situation. We discuss the issue using two examples.

Example 1

The employer allows an incompetent employee (without sufficient training, experience and expertise) to do certain specialized and risky work. This is because the expert worker cannot be brought in and the work must be done on short notice.

Such a request, of course, is asking for trouble. An employee who works with complicated and dangerous machinery at the request of his employer and is injured in the process will want to recover the damages he suffers from his employer. In such a case, it is easy to prove that the employer did not fulfill its duty of care.

The employee was not expert enough to perform this work, but the employer assigned it to him anyway. The employer knew it was dangerous work, what the potential consequences would be, and perhaps should have hired an outside party to perform the work (temporarily).

The employer is obliged to compensate the employee's injury. On the one hand, because these damages were incurred in the performance of his duties and, on the other hand, because the employer failed to fulfill his duty of care.

Example 2

The employer deploys its workers more often and longer than usual to avoid shutting down production lines.

Many employment contracts provide that, in the employer's interest, an employee may be required to work overtime. However, part of your duty of care is to ensure that your employees get adequate rest (under the Working Hours Act). In addition, many employers have obligations under the applicable collective bargaining agreement, such as break arrangements, standard working hours and overtime compensation.

It is therefore important to look for the possibilities regarding overtime within the framework of the employment contract and the collective bargaining agreement. By rewarding overtime, for example, more employees will be willing to work longer and more often. Compensation for overtime often consists of an allowance on top of wages or compensation in the form of "time-for-time.

But be aware of restrictions under, for example, an applicable collective bargaining agreement. For example, the Production and Supply Companies collective bargaining agreement contains an overtime regulation, which provides that employees receive a certain percentage on top of the hourly wage or "time-for-time" as remuneration for overtime. This CBA is a minimum CBA. This means that employers covered by this CBA may deviate from the provisions of the CBA for the benefit of their employees. Therefore, if your company is covered by this CBA, you can reward your employees for overtime work. That pay must be the same as the pay prescribed by the collective bargaining agreement.

Tips for the employer

Many problems caused by underemployment can be prevented by taking the right steps in time. We conclude with two concrete tips to you as an employer:

1️⃣Als you want to assign an employee to other work, make sure you have the proper training and guidance to do so. Make clear agreements and give clear instructions, including on safe working practices. Record everything well.

2️⃣ If you want to encourage employees to work longer and/or more shifts, this is often possible, but be aware of any restrictions under the collective bargaining agreement or employment contract.

As a result of this blog, do you have questions or need advice on an issue? Fill out the form below or contact us so we can advise you on training and your employment contracts.