Sunday, December 20, 2020

Dutch are making WFH a legal right; a look at laws in other nations

The new law makes a distinction between distance working (when services are provided from home or a location other than the company’s establishment, work site or branch) and teleworking . According to the law, both distance working and teleworking require a written remote working agreement that should be registered with the Chilean department of work within 15 days of signing the agreement. Last week, the Dutch Parliament's lower house passed legislation in this regard. The European country now needs to wait for approval from the Senate. Dutch employers will be able to refuse an employee’s request to work from home if there’s a practical reason why their job can’t be done remotely. You will then have five weeks of pregnancy leave and eleven weeks of maternity leave, totaling sixteen weeks of leave.

They are often distracted at home by laundry or catching up on the latest episode of The Bachelor. The Flexible Working Act in the Netherlands has been in force since January 1, 2016. While this act covered a range of employment conditions, one of the main outcomes affected remote working. The pandemic changed those numbers a bit with the EU average going up to 12% in 2020 and Finland taking first place as the ultimate work from home country. Pew Research found that the majority of employed adults who say their responsibilities can be done from home would like to continue to telework.

I run a business - what does the allowance mean for me?

However, despite many individuals in the UK preferring to maintain the flexibility that home working offers, an increasing number of employers are now demanding that staff return to the office. Under the new legislation, employers would need to consider employee requests to work from home if the type of job they do allows them to work away from the office. The Netherlands government has taken a step closer to giving employees the right to work from home by approving legislation that requires employers to consider home working requests.

work from home netherlands law

They also discovered that 6 in 10 employed adults reported higher job satisfaction as a result of telework. The agreements in a CAO are often better than those prescribed by law, but they may never contradict the law. Employers should know that "there soon will be a right in the Netherlands that strengthens the position of the employee to make a choice between working from home or from the business location," Boelhouwer said. ‘So, even though the bill is called “Initiative Bill on Home Working”, it covers remote working in general, not merely working from one’s home address. IOSH magazine spoke to Edith Nordmann, managing partner, attorney of law for ACG International in the Netherlands, about the Dutch Initiative Bill on Home Working. According to Eurostat data reported on by the BBC in 2020, 14.1% of the Dutch workforce worked from home in 2019 compared to around 4.7% in the UK and 5.4% for the European Union average for 27 countries.

Netherlands Poised to Make Work-From-Home a Legal Right

You may not give both the working from home allowance and the travel allowance on the same day. You can make fixed agreements with your employee about the number of days they work from home. For example, you can pay a fixed fee for both working from home and travel expenses. Then employees do not have to keep track of where they work each day. Some others, like Tesla, have coerced employees to return to the office. Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk had warned employees that they could either return to the workplace or leave the company.

work from home netherlands law

Littler lawyers said.

Death and inheritance law in the Netherlands

This means there is no indication of any intention to limit the duration of the contract, such as ‘for the duration of the project’. Name and address of the employer and employee and where you will be working. People who have had work permits for three consecutive years, and who have not moved their residence outside the Netherlands since then, become exempt from the work permit requirement. Their residence permits can be endorsed with a note stating “Employment freely permitted” and “No work permit required”.

work from home netherlands law

You can also agree with your employer that you will stop work immediately. If you resign, you must observe a notice period of one month. Your employment contract may state otherwise, provided it is in writing. The bill initially proposed to implement the "serious business interest" criterion for refusal of workplace requests as well, but this wasn't well-received, according to Engelsman and Keijzer. Lawmakers changed the measure to specify the reasonableness and fairness standard, they explained.

If the duration of the temporary contract is less than two years, the maximum trial period is one month. Exceptions can only be made when a Collective Labour Agreement applies. The legal maximum trial period is two months, with no possibility of extension. The Bill will, for the first time, provide a legal framework around which requesting, approving or refusing a request for remote work can be based. Currently, employers in the Netherlands can deny any request from workers about working from home without giving any reason.

Sometimes it’s a little hard to separate home-life from work-life — and it’s easy to lose focus on work and instead revert to doing chores. But of course, it’s hard to concentrate if you’re constantly getting distracted. Determined to nail the Dutch work-life balance and thrive in your home office? Working from home sometimes doesn’t only have negative effects on your work life — but your home life too.

Dutch employment law

The website may provide links to other websites on the Internet, the content of which is not in our control. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for omissions and errors. If you have found material on this website which is copyrighted by others, please contact the webmaster on this matter in order to have it removed. Although the idea of working from home is pretty appealing, keep in mind that human beings were made for social interaction — that’s why some people prefer to work in an office.

work from home netherlands law

Not only by granting digital nomad visas and permits but also by creating new laws. Portugal, for instance, created a law that makes it illegal for bosses to contact employees after working hours. For Dutch corporations, the new legislation isn't expected to be as contentious.

Also, remote employees have been given the same rights as on-site employees and they have the right to disconnect after working hours. The new legislation comes at a time when companies worldwide struggle to bring workers back to the office. While some companies have been accommodating in bringing their employees back, others like Salesforce have mostly done away with in-office working completely. The new legislation approved by the Dutch Parliament enforces employers to consider requests to work remotely. This only applies to employees whose professions enable them to work from home, not those who can be affected in any instance by it.

In the Netherlands, the Flexible Work Act makes it possible for employees who are employed by the employer for at least six months to request their employer to change the agreed on workplace, for example to a workplace at home. The employee must make his request at least two months prior to the proposed start date and the employer must inform the employee no later than one month prior to this proposed date whether he approves the request or not. If the employer fails to respond to the request, it must be granted.

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Heather McCartin works from her home in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 13, 2020, amid growing fears over COVID-19. Two Dutch lawmakers proposed legislation to establish work from home or teleworking as a legal right. You can request a diploma evaluation from the UWV Werkbedrijf (). If your diploma has been evaluated through the UWV Werkbedrijf, then there is no charge applicable. When you adopt more than one child at the same time, you can take the adoption leave only once. When you have foster children you are also entitled to adoption leave.

Since this office is in a different city, these meetings are conducted over Zoom. With this law, the Netherlands stands to be the first country in the world to codify the right to remote work into law. If they don’t want an employee to work from home, they’ll have to provide an adequate reason for refusing. 9% of employees in the EU-27 said they ‘sometimes’ worked from home in 2019, only 5.4% said they ‘usually’ did. All material on this website is strictly copyright and all rights reserved. If you are dissatisfied with the website or any content or materials on it, your sole exclusive remedy is to discontinue your use of the website.

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