Collect collective bargaining agreements

Have you already heard about the various collective bargaining agreements that have come about in recent months? Are you also already withholding premiums and have your employees been informed about this, because they pay these premiums themselves and are left with less net pay? If it doesn't mean anything to you yet, here is some brief information about these new rules.

Repair^3rd year of WW and WGA

After lengthy negotiations with employers and unions, the outgoing cabinet has reached an agreement to repair the third year of unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed. Employees will contribute premiums per economic sector to collective bargaining funds, from which the benefit will be paid after two years. In the 2013 Social Agreement, a package of agreements was made by social partners and the government. One of the outcomes at the time was the introduction of the Wwz. In that same Social Agreement, it was also agreed to shorten WW benefits to 24 months. In exchange, collective bargaining parties agreed that they would jointly provide for a so-called repair of the third WW and WGA years.

Recently, the parties to the collective bargaining agreement fleshed out the plans in the form of so-called collective bargaining agreements in which the reparation of the third WW and WGA years will return. The collective bargaining agreement is a new supra-sectoral collective bargaining agreement that aims to make the implementation of the repair of the third WW and WGA years possible. It goes as follows. In 2016, a national fund was established, the Private Supplement WW and WGA Foundation (PAWW). The PAWW scheme compensates for the changes as of January 1, 2016 in the accrual and maximum duration of WW and wage-related WGA benefits.

Bound to two collective bargaining agreements side by side

Binding the PAWW scheme through collective bargaining agreements requires construction. Through collective bargaining agreements, collective bargaining parties hope to organize the implementation of the PAWW regulation. The PAWW Foundation website states that the scope of a collective bargaining agreement exceeds the level of the scope of the usual industries and sectors. Thus, the collective bargaining agreement is a sum of the spheres of operation of the individual parts, that is, of the spheres of operation of several regular employment conditions collective agreements (industry collective agreements and company collective agreements).

The Labor Foundation has chosen a classification by five sectors. For example, Social Work and Social Services are classified in Sector 5 along with Youth Care. Employees in the financial and service sector are classified in sector 4. Consequently, employees working for ABN, Rabobank, ING or Obvion not only fall under the collective bargaining agreement that their employer has concluded with the trade unions (e.g., the Rabobank collective bargaining agreement or ABN collective bargaining agreement), but will soon also be bound by the collective bargaining agreement for the services sector.

According to the Labor Foundation, the intention is that only the agreement on the private supplement WW/WGA will be accommodated in a collective labor agreement. A collective labor agreement will thus stand alongside the existing regular labor agreement. Employers can thus be bound by two collective agreements and employees can claim agreements that are included in two collective agreements.

The intention is that the collective agreement will be treated as a fund collective agreement. This also offers the possibility of the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment declaring the collective labor agreement generally binding for up to 5 years (instead of the usual 2 years that applies to employment conditions collective labor agreements).

Employees and employers become bound to the collective bargaining agreements as decentralized collective bargaining parties sign a declaration voluntarily joining one of the collective bargaining agreements. They do this by bringing the scope of the regular working conditions collective agreement into the collective agreement. The declarations of several decentralized collective bargaining parties are then bundled within a sector and combined into one collective bargaining agreement. The collective bargaining agreement is then declared universally binding, thereby binding individual employees to the collective bargaining agreement.

For sector 5, this collective labor agreement has now been declared generally binding. Employers working within the Social Work and Social Services or Youth Care sector are therefore obliged to deduct premiums from wages and inform staff accordingly.

As an employer or employee, what can you expect?

For employers covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the collective bargaining agreement entails rights and obligations. The employer must withhold premiums from wages to meet the mandatory premium payment.

If the employer does not properly comply with the Collective Bargaining Agreement, this may result in an obligation to pay compensation and/or a fine. It is therefore important to keep a close eye on when you will have to start paying contributions and then ensure that you do so correctly.

Employees (if - in short - they are old enough and have worked long enough) may be entitled to somewhat longer WW or WGA benefits in the event of long-term unemployment or disability in a limited number of cases. Whether the employee in question is eligible for this is calculated on the basis of the WW rules in effect on December 31, 2015.

Opinion

If you are an employer, check whether you are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, make proper contributions and inform your employees.

Should you be an employee and face (imminent) dismissal, check whether you have additional claims from the fund in addition to the normal unemployment benefit from the UWV.