New Rules on the Employer's Obligation to inform Employees of the Conditions applicable to the Employment Relationship and certain Working Conditions

The Scope of the Act

Under the current regulation, employers must provide a written employment contract for employees with a weekly average of 8 hours of work during a 4-week period. According to the new Act, the Act applies to employees with a weekly average of only 3 hours of work during a 4-week period.

This means that the new Act will lower the average weekly work time requirements subject to the Act, which will significantly increase the number of employment relationships that will be protected by the provisions in the new Act. 

Extended List of “essential Conditions”

According to the current regulation, the employer is required to notify the employees of certain employment terms categorized as “essential conditions” within 1 month after commencement of the employment.

With the new Act, the list of employment terms categorized as being “essential conditions” is extended, and the new Act will, in addition, reduce the deadline for providing information on such essential conditions. According to the Act, the employee must receive the information no later than 7 days after the commencement date. Consequently, this will also impose more requirements on the drafting of employment contracts.

Please note that the newly introduced 7-day timeline applies only to information on essential conditions, while the timeline for informing about other non-essential conditions remains 1 month from commencement. For practical purposes, the employer will most likely include all information in the same contract or batch of information.

With the new Act, the description of working patterns is now considered to be an essential condition. This is of relevance for employees working without fixed work hours or known shift plans, e.g., employees employed on on-call contracts. For such employees, the work hours are to some extent unforeseeable. According to the Act, the Employer must –the unforeseeable nature of the employment notwithstanding – provide information about how working schedules are planned and the time span in which the employees may expect to work.

Our Comments

Employers will be required to review and update existing employment contract templates in order to secure compliance with the new Act. This means changing the employment terms to include information on all relevant “essential conditions” as stated in the Act, but also amending any insufficient employment terms or any invalid employment terms pursuant to the new Act.

At Moalem Weitemeyer, we are experts in employment law, and we have teams ready to help any of our clients affected by the new Act and its implications as regards employment relationships.