Bolder Notice Employment Law 2021/1

Published by: Marieke Hartkoorn posted on 13 December 2021 reading time

Dear entrepreneurs and enterprising people,

With the end of 2021, the beginning of 2022 is also in sight. The start of a new year is often accompanied by changes and good intentions. Also in the working relationship. That is why we set out some relevant changes below. We also point out some annually recurring obligations. If you still have questions after reading or if you need help, please do not hesitate to contact us!

1. Work at home
2. STAP budget for training
3. Paid parental leave
4. Whistleblowers
5. Temporary extension of free margin for work-related expenses ended
6. Smoking areas
7. On-call contract
8. Taking leave

 

 

1. Work at home

The corona crisis has shown that a number of employees like to work (partially) from home. As an employer, you may also see advantages in this, but it can also lead to questions. How far do you want to go in facilitating working from home, under what conditions do you want to do this and what are the obligations involved?

The government wants to answer some of these questions in legislation and has envisaged a targeted exemption for homeworking expenses, in addition, the bill "Work Where You Want" has been submitted. These proposals are discussed below. In anticipation of new legislation, you can already take advantage of the developments. If there is a need to work from home within your organisation, you can consider whether you want to facilitate this and if so, under what conditions you want to do so. You can draw up internal guidelines or policies for this.

Homework allowance
The cabinet will introduce a targeted exemption for homeworking costs. It has been proposed to compensate a maximum amount of € 2.00 per day worked from home. The possibility of a tax-free travel allowance for commuting will also continue to exist. The travel allowance is a maximum of €0.19 per kilometre. The employer can either give the home-working allowance or the travel allowance per day. The intended effective date is 1 January 2022.

Work where you want' Act
27 January 2021, the initiative bill 'Work where you want to' was submitted. The proposal aims to give employees more freedom in how they organise their work at the workplace and at home. Employees would be able to request a change in the place of work, in the same way as they can now for working hours.

 

 

2. STEP budget

Your employees can apply for a budget of € 1,000.00 for training from 1 March 2022. This is called the STAP-account (Stimulating Labour Market Position). The STAP account replaces the fiscal deduction of training costs.

The available budget is limited, so if your employees want to make use of it, it is good to point this out to them. You can also guide them in choosing training that will also benefit the organisation, for example, retraining or skills enhancement.

More information can be found at:

 

 

3. Paid parental leave

Currently, parents are entitled to 26 weeks of unpaid parental leave in the first eight years of the child's life. Pursuant to the amendment of the law, as of 2 August 2022, parents can take up to 9 of the 26 weeks of partially paid leave in the first year of the child's life. The benefit amounts to 50% of the (maximum) daily wage. Employers can apply for the benefit at the UWV.

The paid parental leave is in addition to the 16 weeks of maternity leave for the mother and six weeks of (additional) maternity leave for the partner.

 

 

4. Whistleblowers

Since 1 July 2016, the Act on the House for Whistleblowers has been in force. This law regulates the possibilities and protection of employees who want to report a suspected wrongdoing. An employer with 50 employees or more must lay down in an internal procedure how reports are dealt with. Employees must receive a (digital) copy of this procedure.

In 2019, the EU Whistleblower Directive was adopted, which must be implemented in Dutch law by 17 December 2021. On 1 June 2021, the Bill on the Protection of Whistleblowers was submitted, implementing the EU Directive. This bill has not yet been adopted.

Regardless of how the Whistleblower Protection Act will look, all employers with 50 employees or more must already have an internal procedure in place. If this is not yet the case in your organisation, it is important to do so now. More information can also be found on our website: https://www.bolderadvocaten.nl/nieuws/wet-bescherming-klokkenluiders/.

 

 

5. Temporary extension of free space in the work-related costs scheme ended

As you probably know, you can give untaxed reimbursements to your employees via the work-related costs scheme (WKR). The total amount of the allowances must remain under the free margin. For 2020 and 2021, the free margin has been increased as a crisis measure during corona, namely 3% of the first € 400,000 of the total wage sum. This increase will end in 2022, when a percentage of 1.7% will apply to the first € 400,000.00 of the total wage bill.

If you still want to compensate your employees for the purchase of a laptop or mobile phone, there is still some more room for this this this year. Also pay attention to the additional conditions.

 

 

6. Smoking Rooms

Do you still have a smoking area at the workplace? This will no longer be allowed from 1 January 2022.

The exception to the smoking ban in the form of smoking rooms for businesses will be abolished. As of 1 July 2021, smoking rooms in government and public buildings were already prohibited. As of 1 January 2022, this will also apply to businesses.

 

 

7. Convocation agreement

If you employ people on the basis of an on-call contract, you must make them an offer for a fixed scope of work within one month after the employment contract has lasted 12 months. The number of hours you offer must be at least equal to the average scope of work during the previous 12-month period. The offer may not take effect later than two months after the 12 months have expired.

If you fail to make this offer, the employee may subsequently claim the salary to which he would have been entitled if you had made the offer, i.e. over the average working hours. This is also possible if he did not work these hours.

 

 

8. Taking leave

On 1 July 2022, the statutory holiday days accrued by employees in 2021 will expire. European case law stipulates that you must inform the employee timely and clearly of this lapse. If you fail to do so, the employee will retain these days off and they will only become time-barred after five years.

We recommend that you inform your employees shortly in writing and as specifically as possible (balance) of the expiry of their leave days. Encourage them to actually take the leave days and/or contact you if they foresee problems with this. Around March 2022, you can remind the employees again about the expiry.

Contact details of our labour lawyers

Bernard Bongaards
bongaards@bolderadvocaten.nl
010-217 53 13

Joop Nijhuis
nijhuis@bolderadvocaten.nl
010-217 53 15

Marieke Hartkoorn
hartkoorn@bolderadvocaten.nl
010-217 53 14

Sebastian van den Brink
vandenbrink@bolderadvocaten.nl
010 217 53 06