News

On 8 November 2016, the Upper Chamber of the Dutch Parliament (de Eerste Kamer)passed the bill “normalising the legal status of civil servants”. It aims at simplifying and modernising the administrative legal status. Traditionally – since 1929 – the civil servant´s legal status has been properly taken care of because of the government´s need for an effective civil administration. The legislation focuses on guaranteeing the competence and integrity of the civil servant and on protecting the civil servant against the (political) whims of superiors and administrators.

At present, nearly a century later, the situation is different and the distinction between a private and public sector employee is not quite as great anymore. Many regulations already apply to both sectors, for instance regarding employment conditions and legal leave arrangements. In addition, in a number of sectors, civil servants and employees work side by side, while the formal regulations of their positions diverge considerably, for example in the education and care sectors.

The new Act harmonises the legal status of (the majority of) the civil servants with that of the private sector Under the new legislation, all civil servants keep their civil servant designation but most of them (except for the police, defence and the judiciary as largest group) are employed on the basis of a contract instead of a (one-sided) appointment. The legal position regulations are replaced by CAOs (Collective Labour Agreements). Employment disputes are treated on the basis of the Civil Law and by a Magistrate. And civil servants, just as the private sector employees, receive employment protection through a preventive dismissal test.

The principle governing the new regulations is that eventually the public sector labour relations will have to be identical to the private sector relations, with the exception of those cases in which there are weighty arguments not to do so.

Specifically, the changes in the Civil Service Act would result in:

• civil servants obtaining an employment contract instead of an appointment;
• the preventive dismissal test being also applied to civil servants; dismissal is only possible with the approval of the UWV (Employment Security Agency) or by dissolution through the Magistrate
• the possibility to lodge an appeal against the dismissal or dissolution all the way up to the Supreme Court (Hof van Cassatie);
• civil servants obtaining the right to a transition compensation, in most cases next to the right to non-statutory supplemental payments (from the WW, the Unemployment Insurance Act). These claims do not automatically expire. It is up to the social partners to agree on a similar provision perhaps leading to a reduction or elimination of the transition compensation. The collective labour agreement of the Probation sector (Reclassering) for example has the possibility to offset the transition compensation against the non-statutory supplemental payments, in which case a remaining difference will be paid.
• the administrative regulations on perspective, objection and appeal are abolished;
• the collective bargaining and its follow up, are replaced by the collective-bargaining law;
• the powers and authorities of the local GO (Georganiseerd Overlege. organised consultations) concerning the employment conditions are abolished and the Ondernemingsraad (Works Council) will in many instances be the employer´s consultative partner.

What´s next?

Since the bill has now been passed by the Eerste Kamer, an implementation act will have to be drawn up. At the same time, many other acts and regulations will have to be amended. Expectations are that its introduction will not be before 1 January 2020.