NETHERLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Inge de Laat, Tijmen Noordoven, Ilaha Muhseni and Laetitia Wezenbeek, Rutgers & Posch
Rutgers & Posch Keizersgracht 617 1017 DS Amsterdam PO Box 10896 1001 EW
Amsterdam Netherlands
Tel: +31 208 913 900 Fax: +31 208 913 901 Email: Tijmen.noordoven@rutgersposch.com Web: www.rutgersposch.com
1. Employment Terms 1.1 Employee Status
ment agreement in place and that Dutch employment law applies to the agreement between the parties. The qualification of the employment agreement is there - fore not only dependent on what parties agree upon, but also on the factual circumstances of work that is performed. This is an ongoing discussion in the Neth - erlands and more information on this can be found under the Netherlands Trends and Developments chapter of this guide. 1.2 Employment Contracts Establishment of the Employment Agreement An employment agreement may be concluded either orally or in writing. However, according to Article 7:655 of the Dutch Civil Code the employer is legally required to provide the employee with written infor - mation about several essential terms of employment. General Information The written information provided by the employer must include at a minimum: • names and addresses of both the employer and the employee; • location(s) where the work will be performed – if there is no fixed workplace, the agreement must state that the employee may be required to work at various locations; • job title; and • clear description of the associated duties and responsibilities.
Dutch employment law protects the employee exten - sively. Therefore, no distinction is made between blue- collar and white-collar workers as all employees are protected under Dutch employment law. If the terms blue- and white-collar workers are being used, they refer to the type of work employees do, with blue collar referring to jobs that require more manual labour and white collar referring to primarily office jobs. However, these terms do not imply a different employee status or different kind of protection for the employees. Employment laws apply to all employees and are mandatory, meaning that deviations are not permitted. Certain provisions may be deviated from if permitted by a collective labour agreement. Addition - ally, some rules are more flexible for employees who earn more than three times the statutory minimum wage, such as those relating to holiday pay and work - ing hours. Furthermore, the rules regarding dismissal are less strict for temporary agency workers. Whether an employment agreement is in place depends on the presence of the three elements: work, remuneration and authority. Parties may enter into an agreement and explicitly declare that the agreement is not an employment agreement. However, if the afore - mentioned three elements are present, Dutch courts and tax authorities may rule that there is an employ -
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