Flexible employment relationships
Flexible employment relationships differ from the standard (permanent) employment contract. A couple of such situations is regulated in the law, such as the chain regulation, the zero-hours/on-call contract, the temporary employment contract and the payroll contract.
Chain regulation
If an employee has had three consecutive employment contracts with the same employer, the last contract is automatically transferred into a contract for indefinite period of time. The employee then has a permanent employment contract. The same applies if successive temporary contracts have been concluded which in total exceed the 36 months limit. The contracts may be concluded at intervals of not more than six months.
Zero-hours/on-call contract
In the case of an on-call contract the scope of labor is not laid down in a number of hours per, for example, week or month. The employee works on-call. In principle the on-call employee has to comply with the call. He is only entitled to wages if he has worked. If the on-call is for less than three hours, the employee is entitled to be paid the wages as if he had worked for three hours. The employer must call up the on-call worker at least four days in advance. Otherwise, the employee may refuse the call. In addition, the employer must make the on-call employee an offer to an employment contract for the average number of hours worked, once the employee has been working on-call for 12 months. If the employer fails to do so, then he owes the on-call employee wages for the average amount of hours worked.
Contract via an agency
The employee is working for a third party (another enterprise) via an agency. The employee then works under the supervision and direction of the third party. This contract is regulated by strict provisions and the Collective Labour Agreement.
Payroll contract
The payroll contract is a temporary employment contract with one key difference. In the case of payrolling, salary payment is done by a payroll company and not by the actual employer. Since the Labour Market in Balance Act came into force, the same employment conditions should apply to a payroll agreement as to a regular employment contract with the actual employer.
We advise and institute legal proceedings in disputes regarding flexible working relationships.
