Will the Reign of Expats Become a Thing of the Past?
More and more frequently expats are faced with accepting a local contract and consequently with giving up their expat perks.
Companies with a big expat pool often want or need to downsize their costs, and where better to start than with the expats, who are relatively expensive to employ? These companies state that they want to harmonise their local and expat contracts, so the expat is expected to accept less salary or less beneficial arrangements for housing, compensation for living abroad, et cetera.
If you recognise this phenomenon within your company, don't panic!
My advice is to first check which law is applicable in your case. Usually that will be Dutch law if you live and work in Holland. Dutch law does not tolerate unilateral change of your labour contract by your employer unless the employer can prove that it has a weighty reason. Even when your contract states that the employer has the unilateral right to change it, he must have a weighty argument. To put it another way: only when the employer’s interests are considered more significant than the employee’s interests can your contract be changed. Fortunately, judges in Holland will not easily deem this the case. Neither reorganisation nor cost reduction is considered a weighty argument. Reorganisation due to financial problems, however, could well be considered a weighty argument.
An employer will have to state and prove that the company has been confronted with unforeseen circumstances that make it unreasonable to maintain the contracts as they are. Again, a judge will only accept these circumstances in exceptional cases.
When confronted with a proposal from your employer, please keep this in mind and ask yourself the following questions:
- did my employer fully inform me and justify the decision?
- is the proposal reasonable?
- am I being treated equally?
- does the proposal contain a transition phase?
My opinion is that your expat status is fairly safe. However, it is wise to get legal advice if your employer decides it's your turn for a local contract!
