In the meantime, the coalition agreement 2017 has been published and many changes again appear to be planned for labor law. These are the most important changes in the coming years:
Cumulative grounds in dismissal law
Where this was previously excluded in the WWZ, it will now be possible again to combine multiple grounds to come to sufficient reasons to dismiss an employee. In return, the employee may be awarded an additional compensation by the court of up to half of the transition compensation (in addition to the already existing transition compensation).
Changes in severance pay for transition
- Employees are entitled to a transition compensation from the start of their employment contract instead of after two years.
- For each year of employment, the transition compensation will amount to one-third of a monthly salary, even for contract durations longer than 10 years. The transitional arrangement for employees over 50 will be maintained.
- The possibility to deduct training costs from the transition compensation is expanded
Continuation of salary payment in case of illness
- The wage continuation period for small employers (up to 25 employees) is shortened from two to one year. The collective costs of the second year are covered through a uniform cost-covering premium, to be paid by small employers.
- The period for which premium differentiation applies in the WGA is also shortened from ten years to five years.
Chain arrangement / probation period
- The period after which consecutive temporary contracts transition into a permanent contract is extended from two to three years.
- The possibilities for a longer probationary period are being expanded to make entering into a permanent contract more attractive for employers. If the first contract is directly for an indefinite period, the probationary period is extended to five months. For contracts longer than 2 years, the probationary period is three months.
Self-employed
- The Wet DBA is being replaced. The new law aims on the one hand to provide (the hirer of) genuine freelancers with certainty that there is no employment relationship, and on the other hand to prevent false self-employment (especially at the lower end).
- There will be a ‘client statement’ for freelancers above a certain rate, which provides clients with clarity and certainty in advance when hiring freelancers.
