What should I know about collective agreements in Germany and the Netherlands?
Collective agreements are agreements between employers and trade unions. It is an agreement that regulates each other’s rights and obligations. For the employee, this means a guarantee of working conditions and remuneration, which are described in the layout.
In countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, joining a collective agreement is a sign of the professionalism, safety and credibility of the employer. That’s why many companies choose to do this there.
Collective agreements regulate the employment and remuneration of workers according to the industry in which they work. In Germany or the Netherlands, there is no uniform Labour Code that regulates universally the employment and remuneration of all workers. This is precisely the role of collective agreements, which differentiate the situation of workers according to the industry in which the work is carried out. Trade unions play a very important role in these countries– they are the ones who actively participate in establishing the most favourable conditions for hiring and remunerating employees in a given industry. These arrangements concern issues such as the minimum wage, the duration of the contract, the duration of the contract, the working time, the components of the payment, termination, the rules applicable to the employee’s illness, the settlement of overtime or issues relating to the reimbursement of travel expenses or accommodation standards. It is useful to know, for example, how salary rates are calculated, how overtime is accounted for and what can be a decision of a particular company, and what is the result of a collective agreement. For example, while there is one top-down rate in Germany, it is much more complicated in the Netherlands. There, this depends on the age of the employee and the industry and collective agreement to which the employer belongs.
The most important advantage of working for an employment agency, which is part of a collective agreement in Germany or the Netherlands, is full transparency of the terms of cooperation. In the employment contract, the employer should include information about the applicable employee of the collective agreement to which he is subject. He can verify the issues at any time, as this is legally regulated. Therefore, you can check in advance, for example: the rate, the maximum number of working hours per day, the length of breaks during work, or information about the right to reimbursement of travel expenses to work, or guidelines on accommodation. In the Netherlands, this is very important in the area of field work and harvesting (CAO Open Teelten collective agreement), as there are specific rules on working time and the settlement of possible overtime. It is worth being aware of this when choosing an employment agency to find a reliable employer.
