Legal Assistance with Employment Conditions Changes

Questioner

1. Can a salary be reduced or secondary conditions changed by the employer if an employee accepts or requests a lower position? 2. What is the legal consequence if an employee has been working somewhere for 25 years and an employment contract has never been drawn up? Also since the employee refuses to sign one now.

Lawyer

1. No, the employer may not unilaterally change the employment conditions. However, this can be done in consultation with the employee. If the employee refuses, the employer can go to court and request an adjustment of the employment contract on the grounds of changed circumstances. 2. An employment contract may also be concluded orally unless the collective labor agreement requires a written employment contract. The result is that there may be uncertainty about what the employment conditions are and in any case a non-competition and/or relationship clause is not legally valid.

Lawyer

If an employee requests a lower position, the employment conditions that apply to that position apply, although I can imagine that the employer has the obligation to properly inform the employee about the consequences of requesting a lower position. If the employee is demoted due to inadequate performance, a transitional arrangement must be included in any case and the changes must remain within reasonable limits. For demoting due to reorganization, the rule of thumb is that an employee may not earn more than 10% less. The secondary conditions fall under the reasonableness test. The legal consequences are determined on the basis of the current employment conditions as evidenced by, for example, payments made by the employer, or from assessment reports, letters, etc. and of course the collective labor agreement. It is not mandatory to sign a contract per se. Such a contract is only the formal summary of the agreements made and in that sense only a means of proof. The law determines whether there is an employment contract: wages for work within a relationship of authority, is the short summary. If that is the case, then there is quickly an employment contract.