The rules regarding on-call contracts will also change as of January 1, 2020. These will become stricter. On-call contracts include both zero-hours contracts and min-max contracts.
In the first instance, a notice period for on-call work of at least four days will be introduced. If you do not observe this notice period, the employee is not required to appear. As an employer, you are then not required to pay wages, so in that sense, this change is of limited consequence. Conversely, the opposite applies: if you, as the employer, withdraw the call within four days before the start of the work, the on-call worker is entitled to wages for the full duration of the call.
Due to a second change, you as an employer will need to take action if you use on-call contracts. You will be obliged to make a written offer for a fixed number of hours to the on-call worker within one month every time the on-call contract has lasted 12 months. This fixed number of hours must be at least equal to the average number of hours worked in the preceding 12-month period. If you fail to meet this obligation, the on-call worker has a wage claim by operation of law—automatically based on the act—for that average number of hours. Such a wage claim only expires after five years. This means that after a long period, an on-call worker can come forward with a wage claim for the entire preceding period and claim the statutory increase of 50% on the overdue wages.
The WAB has immediate effect. If you use on-call contracts that continue on January 1, 2020, and have lasted longer than 12 months on that date, you must make a written offer for a fixed number of hours to the relevant on-call workers by January 31, 2020, at the latest. For the calculation of the 12-month period, employment contracts that have succeeded each other with intervals of six months or less are added together. Anticipating this obligation, you may be able to reduce the number of on-call hours in 2019, which will lower the average number of hours to be offered. Regarding on-call contracts running until December 31, 2019, at the latest, we advise you to consider whether you wish to extend them. Finally, it is advisable to determine the maximum duration for which you will offer on-call contracts after January 1, 2020.
The on-call worker may refuse the written offer of a fixed number of hours. It is wise to obtain this refusal in writing so that you can prove the refusal. In that case, you can agree on a new on-call contract. If this new contract lasts longer than 12 months, you will again have to make a written offer to the on-call worker within one month after the end of this period. It is therefore a recurring obligation.
The rules mentioned above regarding on-call contracts do not apply to positions that, as a result of climatic or natural circumstances, can be performed by the same on-call worker for a maximum of nine months per year. This must, however, be regulated in a collective labor agreement (CAO).
Should you have any questions about the WAB, please feel free to call us. We are happy to assist you.
share this article:
