Smoking ban in the workplace - untaxed home work allowance - Future Pensions Act
Date: Jan. 26, 2022
Modified November 14, 2023
Reading time: +/- 2 minutes
Date: Jan. 26, 2022
Modified November 14, 2023
Reading time: +/- 2 minutes
And furthermore in this short news update: Longer work permit WAV, differentiated premiums WGA and Sickness Act 2022: group of small employers is increased, differentiated Aof premium 2022, 30% overtime rule comes back into force, employee can no longer give permission for sharing medical data with employer and name change of Inspectorate SZW.
As of Jan. 1, 2022, designated smoking areas in the workplace are no longer allowed. This measure is part of the National Prevention Agreement signed in 2018 between the central government and more than 70 different (civil society) organizations in the business community. The agreement aims to reduce smoking, obesity and problematic alcohol use among the working population. A designated smoking area inside business premises is therefore no longer allowed.
Is smoking under a canopy on private property still allowed? The ban means that a lockable smoking area intended for smoking and designated as such is no longer permitted. A non-enclosed, that is, open area outside is therefore still allowed, in our opinion.
As of January 1, 2022, employers may give employees who work from home an untaxed allowance of up to €2 per day. The cabinet arrives at this allowance after research by the Nibud. With this homework allowance, the extra expenses of home workers can be compensated. The employer may already give a tax-free allowance for setting up the home office under the work-related expenses scheme.
The untaxed travel allowance for commuting also remains. This allowance is a maximum of 0.19 euros per kilometer. The employer can pay either the home-work allowance or the travel allowance per day.
A law that will not formally take effect until January 1, 2023, but to which we would like to briefly draw your attention is the Future Pensions Act. The bill is based on the Pension Agreement of June 2019. It is important for you to start working on this in good time because the pension system will change dramatically and all pension plans must be scrutinized.
With the enactment of the law, among other things, pensions will be accrued differently. The pension premium will become age-independent and the accrual will be lower as the employee gets older. No longer will the pension consist of a previously promised benefit; average- and final-pay schemes will cease to exist. Only defined contribution plans are still allowed. For employees between 35-55 in particular, the changes may be detrimental. They should be compensated.
The social partners and pension administrators will have four years to adapt pension schemes to the new legislation, i.e. until Jan. 1, 2027. During the transition to the new pension system, the "transition financial assessment framework" will apply. The basic principle is that, as much as possible, "the current situation is looked at with the perspective of the new system.
As of Jan. 1, 2022, the maximum duration for which a work permit can be granted under the Foreign Nationals Employment Act (WAV) has been extended from one to three years. Changes are also being made to strengthen the position of employees, for example, from now on the employer must always pay wages monthly and by giro.
In September 2021, the UWV set the level of the individual differentiated premium Workforce Investment Fund (Whk premium) for 2022. That premium is determined on the basis of premium differentiation, whereby the employer who has a higher inflow into the WGA and/or the Sickness Benefits Act than the average employer pays a higher premium. If an employer has a lower inflow, he also pays a lower premium.
In addition to the level of inflow into the WGA and ZW, the size of the employer itself is also relevant to the level of the premium. Small employers pay only a sector premium, independent of the inflow of WGA and ZW benefits. Medium-sized employers pay a partly sectoral, partly individual premium based on the inflow of WGA and ZW benefits. For large employers, the inflow of WGA and ZW benefits is fully reflected in the Whk premium.
Starting in 2022, the wage and salary limit between small and medium-sized employers will be 25 times the average wage per employee (€882,500 premium wage in 2020). Until 2021, this limit was 10 times the average wage per employee (€ 346,000 premium wage in 2019). It is aligned with the new Aof premium (see below). The adjustment of the wage and salary limit increases the group of small employers and thus more employers will end up paying only a sectoral premium in 2022 than in 2021. On the contrary, the group of medium-sized employers is reduced.
For more information on this topic and a summary of established premiums, see this link.
On January 1, 2022, an amendment to the Social Insurance Financing Act will also take effect that will result in small employers paying a lower Social Security Disability Fund premium. The bill is part of a package of measures through which the Cabinet intends to financially assist small employers with the costs of reintegration and the wage payment obligation during illness (which lasts two years). These costs weigh particularly heavily on small employers.
The change means that small employers will pay a lower premium than other employers (medium and large). The boundary between the two will be set at 25 times the average contributory wage per employee per year (this delineation will also be used for the differentiated Whk premium as of January 1, 2022, see above).
Specifically, it means that the differentiated Aof premium decreases by about 1%-point for small employers and increases by about 0.1%-point for medium and large employers. The difference between small and (medium) large employers thus becomes about 1.1%-point. The idea is that small employers will use the money saved to insure themselves against disability, for example by taking out SME Absenteeism Insurance.
Since January 1, 2020 (effective date of the Balanced Labor Market Act), employers pay a low WW premium for employees with a permanent employment contract, other than an on-call contract, and a high premium for all other employment contracts. If "low premium employees" work more than 30% overtime within a calendar year, the employer will still owe the high premium for that calendar year.
Because that scheme could have unintended consequences for sectors where extra work was needed as a result of the corona crisis (e.g., healthcare), the Cabinet had suspended the scheme completely in 2020 and 2021. However, as of Jan. 1, 2022, the scheme will come back into effect and it will be important to keep accurate records of overtime to avoid revising the level of the unemployment insurance premium from low to high at the end of the calendar year. The difference between the two premiums is 5%-point.
Giving permission to the UWV to share medical data with the employer will no longer be possible as of Jan. 1, 2022. Until recently, an employer could gain insight into the employee's medical data with the employee's consent, for example in the case of a WIA or Sickness Benefits Act decision or in the case of an objection procedure. The employee's authorized representative - a doctor or lawyer - now gets the medical data of interest. The employer does not (anymore).
As of January 1, 2022, the name of the Social Affairs and Employment Inspectorate ("Inspectie SZW") has been changed to "Netherlands Labor Inspectorate. The Inspectorate SZW is engaged in monitoring compliance with various labor laws. The Inspectorate also detects fraud, exploitation and organized crime in the field of work and income. By the way, in popular speech, the Inspectorate SZW is often referred to as "Labor Inspectorate.
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