Significant updates to the Employment Protection Act (EPA) provide new protections to workers and benefits for employers. Employers now have more flexibility in making exemptions to seniority rules during a layoff. The new EPA gives all employers the right to exempt three employees from the "last in, first out" rule. Previously, organizations with up to 10 employees could exempt up to two people from the rule. The updated law also requires employers to provide "objective reasons" rather than the previous "objective grounds" for a termination for personal reasons. This change aims to make the circumstances for such terminations more predictable. New rules covering fixed-term employment seek to give a boost to these workers. Under the new rules, a special fixed-term employment automatically converts into a permanent employment either when the employee has worked for more than 12 months during a five-year period, or when the employee has had successive special fixed-term employment, substitute employment or seasonal employment engagements.
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.