Most important HR law changes 2022

From FHI Advice We have drawn up a memo for our members together with our partner Vestius Advocaten regarding the changes in HR legislation that will take effect on 1 January 2022. 

Most important HR law changes 2022

• From 1 January 2022, it will be possible to provide employees with a tax-free home working expense allowance of €2 per day (or part day) worked from home.
• The tax-free travel allowance of €0.19 per kilometre for commuting will also continue to exist.
• The travel and home office allowances can be awarded simultaneously. Please note: either the home office allowance or the travel allowance can be provided per day.
• If fixed agreements have been made about the number of days per week on which the employee works from home, a fixed home working expense allowance may be awarded on this basis.
• Adjustment is not necessary if work is done at the office on an occasional home working day, but in the event of structural changes, the home working expense allowance must be adjusted.
  
  

• In the 2022 Tax Plan, the expansion of the WKR tax-free space for the year 2021 has been definitively set at 3%.
• The temporary expansion of the WKR tax-free allowance that the government introduced in 2020 and 2021 in connection with the corona crisis will expire in 2022.
• As of January 1, 2022, the normal percentages will apply again:
  • the free space for the first €400,000 of the taxable payroll is 1.7%;
  • over the excess of €400,000 the available space is 1.18%.
• If the free space is exceeded, a final levy of 80% applies.
  
  

• As of January 1, 2020, a low unemployment insurance premium applies to permanent contracts and a high premium for flexible contracts as a result of the Balanced Labor Market Act.
• From 2022, premiums will decrease compared to 2021. The following applies for 2022:
  • Low unemployment insurance premium: 2.2%;
  • High unemployment insurance premium: 7.2%.
• The suspension in connection with corona of the retroactive payment of the high unemployment insurance premium for permanent employees who have worked more than 30% overtime in a calendar year will no longer apply from 2022. If permanent employees work more than 30% overtime during the calendar year 2022, the high unemployment insurance premium must still be paid retroactively.
  
  

• The additional tax percentage for private use of a business emission-free car is being phased out in accordance with the Climate Agreement. An additional tax of 16% applies for 2022.
• The catalogue price on which the discount on the additional tax rate for zero-emission cars applies will be reduced. In 2022 this will be €35,000 (and from 2023 €30,000).
  
  

• The European directive on transparent and predictable working conditions must be implemented in Dutch legislation by 1 August 2022 at the latest.
• Implementation of the directive will have the following consequences, among others:
  • A new article 7:653a BW is added to Book 7 of the Dutch Civil Code. This article stipulates that it is in principle not permitted to prohibit secondary activities during the employment contract. Employees may then have multiple employers. A secondary activities clause in the employment contract will then be null and void, unless the clause can be justified on the basis of an objective reason. This objective reason may be included in the employment contract itself, but may also be given by the employer afterwards.
  • The employer's duty to provide information pursuant to Article 7:655 of the Dutch Civil Code will be expanded. This means that the employer must now provide employees with information on, among other things, the procedural aspects of terminating the employment contract, working hours, the workplace, the arrangement(s) regarding overtime and the entitlement to paid leave. Please note: in most cases, this information is already included in the employment contract.
  • If the employer is obliged by law or collective labour agreement to provide training to its employees to perform the work for which they have been hired, the training in question must:
  • A study cost clause will only be possible in certain cases and in any case not in the case of compulsory education. There will be no transitional law, so that already agreed study cost clauses will no longer be valid in certain cases.
  • Employees with an unpredictable work pattern will be better protected. The employer is required to agree on so-called reference days and reference hours in writing with the employee at the start of the employment contract. These are days and hours on which the employee can be required to work. If the employer actually wants to call the employee to come and work on a reference day, a minimum call-up period of four days before the start of the work applies. This is in line with the legislation that currently also applies to on-call workers. If the employer does not do this or the call-up falls outside the reference days or hours, the employee may refuse to work. The change will be implemented in Article 7:628b of the Dutch Civil Code.
    
    

• As of January 1, 2022, the statutory minimum wage for employees aged 21 and over will be €1,725 gross per month.
  
  

• Currently, an employee is legally entitled to unpaid parental leave for a maximum of 26 weeks. This will change with the Paid Parental Leave Act ('Wbo') that will come into effect on 2 August 2022.
• With the entry into force of the Wbo, employees are entitled to a parental leave allowance for 9 weeks when taking leave. The condition is that they take these 9 weeks in the first year of the child's life. Employers do not have to continue paying the salary, the allowance is provided by the UWV. This amounts to 50% of the daily wage (up to 50% of the maximum daily wage). The allowance may be increased to 70% of the daily wage.
• Paid parental leave also applies to some parents who have a child before the law comes into effect. In that case, the child must be younger than one year old at the time the law comes into effect. The parents must also be employees at that time and not yet have taken the full parental leave (26 times the working hours per week).
  
  

• As of 1 January 2022, a company may no longer have a smoking area, in accordance with the amended Tobacco and Tobacco Products Decree. The NVWA monitors the enforcement of this smoking ban and in the event of a violation of the ban, the NVWA may impose an administrative fine.
  
  

• With the entry into force of the SZW Omnibus Act 2022 – the date of entry into force of which has yet to be determined – the Works Councils Act will change on a number of points.
• The terms of active and passive suffrage are shortened from 6 months and 12 months respectively to 3 months (Article 6 WOR).
• After 15 months (instead of 24 months), temporary workers build up participation rights in the hirer's company and will thus acquire active and passive voting rights after 18 months (Article 1 of the Works Councils Act).
• Article 15 WOR is amended in such a way that it is possible to deviate from the main rule that a standing committee must consist of a majority of Works Council members. This can contribute to reducing the workload of Works Council members. If the standing committee does not consist of a majority of Works Council members, the right to advise and approve remains with the Works Council.
  
  

• A new paragraph is added to Article 2a of the AVV Act, which stipulates that a limited group of posted workers (the group engaged in the initial assembly or first installation of a good), under the conditions set out in the Posting of Workers Directive, is not entitled to the “hard core” of employment conditions with regard to remuneration and the minimum number of paid annual leave days. This only applies to the extent that these employment conditions arise from generally binding provisions of the collective labour agreement that are applicable on the basis of Article 2a paragraph 1 of the AVV Act.
• Other parts of the “hard core” of employment conditions continue to apply in full to these seconded employees if they carry out installation or assembly work in the Netherlands.
• The exception does not apply to work in the construction sector.
  
  

• With the entry into force of the SZW Omnibus Act 2022, an addition will be made to the definition of “self-employed person” in the WagwEU, which means that it refers to a self-employed person from another EU Member State. This does not concern self-employed persons from third countries. Self-employed persons from third countries fall under the regime of the Foreign Nationals Employment Act.
• A newly added Article 3b of the Working Conditions Act (WagwEU) means that an employer may not disadvantage an employee because the employee initiates legal or administrative proceedings to enforce the rights granted to him in this Act or in Article 2a of the Working Conditions Act.
  
  

• With the entry into force of the SZW Omnibus Act 2022, Article 88a WAO, Article 104 WIA and Article 75a ZW will be repealed. As a result, the UWV may no longer share medical data with the employer at all, even if an employee gives permission for this.
• An authorized representative of the employer, acting in the employer's place, may inspect the medical data.
  
  

• A bill is currently being considered that will amend the Whistleblower Protection Act to become the House for Whistleblowers Act.
• The pending bill will result in several changes, including:
  • stricter requirements for the internal reporting procedure;
  • the reporting procedure should also be open to reports of breaches of European Union law;
  • an extension of the circle of protective persons;
  • a shift in the burden of proof: the burden of proof will rest on the employer; and
  • a registration requirement for the employer.

If you have any questions regarding the memorandum, please contact Lise van den Heuvel (06-234 922 48 l.van.den.heuvel@vestius.com) or Michiel van Haelst (06-55394487, m.van.haelst@vestius.com)