Art. 1 Legal Status (Local Employees) Regulations 2020

The following definitions are used in these Regulations: mission: a diplomatic representation, a consular representation or a permanent representation to an international organisation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands abroad; head of mission: the head of a mission; HDPO: the director of the Human Resources Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; employer: the State of the Netherlands; employee: a person employed at a mission on an employment contract subject to local regulations; family members: an employee’s partner and dependent children; partner: a spouse; a registered partner; or a partner with whom an unmarried employee cohabits and runs a joint household, with a view to long-term cohabitation, on the basis of a cohabitation agreement executed by a civil-law notary stating the mutual rights and obligations of the cohabitees in respect of their cohabitation and joint household. Only one person may be deemed to be an employee’s partner at any given time. A person deemed to be an employee’s partner only loses this status on the day this person ceases to be a partner within the meaning of this point of this article; dependent children: the children of an employee or an employee’s partner, including adopted children and stepchildren, who are under 18 and for whom the employee bears full financial responsibility or more than half of the financial responsibility; mission version: a document laying out detailed regulations, based on these Regulations, specifically for the country in which a mission is located; occupational health service: the medical officer or health service designated by the head of mission to assist the head of mission in the provision of occupational health support to employees; job: the various duties to be performed by an employee by virtue of and in accordance with the instructions given to the employee by the employer; salary: the salary amount referred to in chapter 4, part 1, plus the allowances referred to in part 2 of that chapter; monthly salary: the salary amount referred to in chapter 4, part 1 relating to a period of one month, plus the allowances referred to in part 2 of that chapter relating to a period of one month, in so far as these allowances have been awarded for an open-ended period or for a period of at least five consecutive years immediately preceding the end of the employment contract; local: in the place where the mission is located; local regulation: a peremptory provision of employment law in force locally that is applicable to the employee; local usage: what is standard practice locally at the foreign representations of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and the European Union. If there are fewer than three of the aforementioned foreign representations in the place where the mission is located, HDPO will designate one or more other foreign representations established locally, after consultation with the head of mission; in-house emergency officer: an employee working at the mission who has been designated by the head of mission to perform the emergency service activities referred to in article 6.8 in addition to their normal duties; 3W: the director of 3W WorldWide Working (3W WereldWijd Werken) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. De datum van inwerkingtreding ligt voor de datum van uitgifte. 1. The ministers grant power of attorney and authorisation to perform juristic acts and to perform acts that constitute neither a decision nor a juristic act under private law to the Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, HDPO and 3W, in relation to all local employees, and to heads of mission, in relation to local employees working at their mission, pursuant to these Regulations, the regulations based on them, such as the mission versions, and any further instructions. 2. The ministers also authorise the officials referred to in paragraph 1 to record in the competence table that is part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ administrative organisation which officials accountable to them are jointly competent to exercise the power of attorney and authorisation. De datum van inwerkingtreding ligt voor de datum van uitgifte. 1. Employment contracts and any disputes arising from them are subject to local employment law and – in so far as the following do not conflict with peremptory provisions of that employment law – to these Regulations and the mission version and other regulations adopted pursuant to these Regulations. 2. Provisions contained in or adopted pursuant to these Regulations which conflict with local usage may be declared wholly or partially inapplicable in the mission version. De datum van inwerkingtreding ligt voor de datum van uitgifte. 1. The employer may not make a distinction between employees on the grounds of religion, beliefs, political convictions, race, sex, nationality, sexual orientation, civil status, a difference in working hours, or any other grounds whatsoever, unless such a distinction is objectively justified. 2. Any claim under this article is subject to a limitation period of six months. De datum van inwerkingtreding ligt voor de datum van uitgifte. 1. 3W draws up a mission version for the mission or missions in the district served by an embassy, together with the heads of mission of the embassy and any other missions in the district. 2. The mission version contains employment conditions and related provisions such that, in combination with the applicable employment conditions and provisions under these Regulations, it constitutes a total package of employment conditions and related provisions in accordance with local usage. 3. The head of mission at an embassy may, after consultation with the heads of mission of any other missions in the embassy’s district, propose an amendment to the mission version to 3W, whenever circumstances warrant this. 3W can also, after consultation with the head or heads of mission involved, take the initiative to prepare an amendment to the mission version. 4. Adoption, amendment or withdrawal of the mission version is carried out by HDPO. HDPO only adopts, amends or withdraws the mission version once the employee participation body at the mission or missions has been given the opportunity by the head or heads of mission concerned to give an advisory opinion. If HDPO deviates from the advisory opinion given by the employee participation body, HDPO must, via the head or heads of mission, notify the employee participation body of this in writing and give sound reasons for doing so. 5. The right to give an advisory opinion as referred to in paragraph 4 does not apply to: amendments to the annexe to a mission version containing the salary amounts fixed by HDPO or 3W using the instruments devised for this purpose, as referred to in article 4.1, paragraph 5; thb adoption, amendment or withdrawal of a mission version in connection with an amendment to these Regulations that entails the adoption, amendment or withdrawal of a number of mission versions. De datum van inwerkingtreding ligt voor de datum van uitgifte. 1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has an independent disputes committee (the LSR Disputes Committee) consisting of a chair, several alternate chairs and several ordinary members. The chair and alternate chairs do not operate under the responsibility of the employer and are members of the Dutch judiciary. The task, working methods and composition of the disputes committee are to be further determined by the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the LSR Disputes Committee Regulations. 2. An employee or ex-employee can submit a dispute with the employer on the application of these Regulations or any regulations based on these Regulations to the disputes committee in writing, stating reasons. The employee or ex-employee will not incur any costs for submitting a dispute to the disputes committee. 3. After examining all the relevant documentation and giving the employee or ex-employee and the employer the opportunity to be heard, the committee issues a written and reasoned advisory opinion to the employer and sends a copy to the employee or ex-employee. 4. The employer notifies the employee or ex-employee in writing of its decision regarding whether or not to implement the dispute committee’s advisory opinion. If the employer decides to deviate from the advisory opinion, sound reasons must be given for doing so. 5. An employee or ex-employee who submits a dispute to the disputes committee may be assisted by an adviser. 6. An employee’s or ex-employee’s decision to submit a dispute to the disputes committee does not affect the employee’s or ex-employee’s right to bring the same dispute before a court in the country where the mission at which the employee or ex-employee works or worked is located or before a court in another country. De datum van inwerkingtreding ligt voor de datum van uitgifte. Any claim arising from the employment contract between an employee and the employer is subject to a limitation period of five years from the date on which the claim arose, in so far as these Regulations do not provide otherwise. De datum van inwerkingtreding ligt voor de datum van uitgifte. 1. Regulations governing the legal status of employees and other regulations and instructions which employees must comply with in performing their duties, and amendments to such regulations and instructions, must be communicated to the employee and be deposited for inspection at a place to which the employee has access. The employee may make copies of such regulations free of charge, in so far as this is reasonably necessary. 2. The main points of the regulations and instructions referred to in paragraph 1 are also available in Spanish and French. 3. The employee must be properly informed of any regulations and instructions that are not recorded in writing. De datum van inwerkingtreding ligt voor de datum van uitgifte. The employer can, either at the suggestion of the head of mission or otherwise, exclude the application of articles of these Regulations or deviate from them for the benefit of an employee in so far as their application would be materially unfair in view of the employee’s interest in having a strong legal status and good employment conditions. De datum van inwerkingtreding ligt voor de datum van uitgifte. De datum van inwerkingtreding ligt voor de datum van uitgifte.

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