National Regulations

Pursuant to the Wet op het algemeen verbindend en het onverbindend verklaren van bepalingen van collectieve arbeidsovereenkomsten (Declaration of Universally Binding and Non-Binding Status of Provisions of Collective Agreements Act), the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment is authorised to declare universally binding provisions of collective agreements (= avv) which apply for a significant majority of persons employed in an industry.
A declaration of universally binding status is intended to support the establishment and contents of collective agreements on employment terms and conditions, with a view to preventing that non-bound employers and employees compete by undercutting each other on employment terms and conditions.
When the provisions of a collective agreement are declared universally binding, these provisions are binding on all employers and employees working in the industry to which the collective agreement relates.

An order declaring universally binding status can only be issued on request of one or more employers or employers’ organisations or employees’ organisations who are party to the respective collective agreement. An application for a declaration of universally binding status and an official publications of “tervisieleggingen” of an application for a declaration of universally binding status, are published in the Staatscourant (Government Gazette).

Interested parties have the right to raise objections, during the “tervisielegging” for a period of 3 weeks. You can only “electronically” raise objections, via the digital form. Objections raised before or after the 3 weeks period are inadmissible. Objections are, as a rule, submitted to the parties applying for the order declaring universally binding status. The Minister takes the objections and the responses into account in the decision-making process. If necessary, the substantiated objections will be send to the parties of the “avv” request in order to response. Only after the comments on the objections have been received, the “avv” request can be continued.

The legislation specifies neither an obligation for the Minister, nor a right for applicants when it comes to a declaration of universally binding status or an exemption. It is a case of a discretionary power of the Minister’s.

The Besluit aanmelding van collectieve arbeidsovereenkomsten en het verzoeken om algemeen verbindend verklaring (Notification of Collective Agreements and Applications for Declarations of Universal Binding Status Decree) contains rules in more detail relating to an application for an order declaring universally binding status. It requires both specification of the relevant provisions of the collective agreement and the period for which universally binding status is requested. Parties must also state if any employment relationships (companies or subsections of an industry) should be excluded.

The Toetsingskader Algemeen Verbindend Verklaring CAO-bepalingen (Assessment Framework Declaration of Universally Binding Status Provisions of collective agreements) contains policy rules regarding the order declaring universally binding status of provisions of collective agreements and regarding exemptions. An application for exemption can only be submitted by employers or parties that have concluded a legally effective collective agreement. It is also required that the parties to the collective agreement are independent in respect of each other.

Directly to National Regulations (in Dutch available only)

No rights can be derived from the texts. The text of the laws and regulations is always decisive!