Update temporary employment CLA

On May 27, the ABU and NBBU reached an agreement with the trade union LBV about an unchanged extension of the current CLA for Temporary Employees, until October 1, 2021. The last CLA expired on June 1.

Jurriën Koops, director of the ABU says: “It is important that LBV has taken its responsibility, so that the current CLA will remain in force after 1 June. For the time being, this provides peace of mind and clarity and the possibility – if an SER agreement on the labor market is reached – to include the consequences of this.”

The agreement will be presented to the members of the ABU on 31 May. The members of the NBBU will vote on it on 27 May. If they vote in favour, the ABU and the NBBU CLA’s will be extended immediately, so without a “CLA-less” period.

There will most likely not be a general binding declaration (algemeenverbindendverklaring – avv). The starting point for this is admittedly the number of members among the bound employers and all their staff, but the situation here is special, now that FNV and CNV (the most important trade unions) have refused to sign. Objections to avv will undoubtedly be submitted. In addition, the extension period is so short that there is hardly time for an avv (which also cannot have retroactive effect). The non-members cannot voluntarily apply the entire extended collective labor agreement. To do this, they must be a member of the ABU or NBBU. For example, they will not be able to make use of the phase system. This means that competition on terms of employment can arise between employers who are members of the ABU and the NBBU, and those who are not.

There is also no obligation on the employee side. The members of LBV are immediately bound, as from the renewal, provided they are employed by an employer that is affiliated with the ABU or NBBU. However, that is a negligibly small group. The rest of the temporary workers are generally bound by an incorporation clause (as stated: avv is unlikely). An important objection is that the existing incorporation clauses do not necessarily refer to this extension, because the large unions FNV and CNV did not co-sign. If we “Haviltex” (the generally accepted standard to interpret a clause in the Netherlands, named after a Supreme Court case) the incorporation clause, then the question is whether the employee was equally willing to commit to a CLA that would be concluded with only the LBV. The fact that the extension does not entail any changes is not decisive. After all, things are not going smoothly in the temp work sector, and there is a reason that FNV and CNV did not want to sign.

What the extension does bring about is that temporary workers who enter the service of an employer who is a member of the ABU or NBBU after 1 June may fall under the CLA extension, including deviations from mandatory law, such as the phase system. The objection that their incorporation clause (assuming that they are not members of the LBV) “changes color” does not apply to them.