Your collective agreement & sector archives

General

A social plan is an agreement between an employer and employee representatives, such as trade unions, that outlines how employees will be treated in the event of a reorganisation, such as a merger, acquisition or a significant change in business operations. It typically covers aspects like redundancy pay, retraining opportunities, outplacement services, and how employees will be consulted during the process.

A social plan is an agreement between employer(s) and trade union(s), in which arrangements are laid down that regulate the consequences of a reorganisation. If the reorganisation has consequences for you as an employee, the employer must apply the social plan. This applies, for example, if it has been decided to move your activities to another location, to stop carrying out certain activities, or to do the same work with fewer people.

The social plan outlines your rights and obligations. It also states whether your role may be made redundant and what your employer must do to help you find another position (and which alternative roles you must accept). If another job cannot be found, you are often entitled to a redundancy payment. This is also arranged in the social plan.

Een collectieve arbeidsovereenkomst (cao) is een overeenkomst die namens een groep werknemers met een werkgever of werkgeversorganisatie wordt gesloten.

Actually, it's very simple: CLA stands for Collective Labour Agreement and encompasses a written agreement between employee organisations, employer organisations and employers. It sets out agreements on terms and conditions of employment. A CLA applies in addition to your individual employment contract and therefore largely determines your terms and conditions of employment.

Read on

Is my employer obliged to apply the collective labour agreement if they are not a member of the employers' association?

Is a collective labour agreement mandatory or not? A question that is regularly asked by both employers and employees. If your employer is not a member of an employers' association, then applying a collective labour agreement is only mandatory when:

A company collective labour agreement;
An industry-wide collective labour agreement (CLA) that has been declared universally binding (UB). The CLA then automatically applies to all employers in that industry that fall within the scope of the CLA. This includes your employer, who is not a member of an employers' association. There are exceptions to this, however.

Read on

Your employer is not covered by a collective bargaining agreement. What does this mean for me?

It often happens that no collective bargaining agreement (CBA) applies. If there is no CBA that covers your employer and therefore your employment contract, then you make your own agreements with your employer. It is advisable to record these agreements in writing in your employment contract.

Read on

Can my employer deviate from the collective labour agreement?

If a collective labour agreement (CLA) applies, your employer is obliged to implement the provisions of the CLA. Whether your employer may deviate from the provisions in the CLA depends on the nature of the CLA. In the case of a norm-CLA or standard-CLA, your employer must apply all provisions as described in the CLA and may not deviate from them. This also applies even if the change would be an improvement for you.

With a minimum collective labour agreement (CLA), your employer is allowed to deviate from the provisions in the CLA, but only if it results in a better arrangement for you as an employee. Often, the type of CLA can be found within the CLA itself.

Read on

Your collective labour agreement & sector

General

Ask for the clear manual!

Ask for the clear manual!