Your contract or employment agreement in the recreation sector can be for a fixed term or indefinite period. You determine this together with your employer through mutual agreement.
Fixed-term
You can agree on a fixed-term employment contract with your employer. The period you determine can be of any arbitrary length. The employment contract must include a start and end date. The employment relationship then automatically ends when the agreed period is over. You do not need to terminate it.
The employer is obliged to inform you in writing at least one month before your temporary contract ends whether your contract will be extended or not, and if so, under what conditions. This is known as the notice requirement. The notice requirement applies to contracts entered into for a period of six months or longer. If the employer does not comply with this obligation, they are liable to pay compensation of up to one month's gross salary or, in case of late compliance, an amount proportional to the delay.
A fixed-term annual hours contract can only be concluded once!
When is a permanent contract applicable?
You are entitled to a permanent contract if you are offered a fourth contract or have been employed for more than 3 years with your employer. Is there more than 6 months between the temporary contracts? Then the counting of the contracts starts anew. Note: exceptions to the above chain rule are possible:
- You have a work-study agreement for a BBL course (vocational training pathway).
- You are younger than 18 years and work an average of no more than 12 hours per week.
- You are a temporary agency worker and your contract includes a temporary agency clause.
- You are an intern.
- You have reached the state pension age. An employer may give you 6 temporary contracts over a period of 4 years from the state pension age.
The CLA recreation stipulates that if you have a seasonal employment agreement, the chain of contracts is interrupted if there is a minimum of 3 months and a day between the contracts.
Check your employment contract
What should you look out for when signing a new employment contract? It must be a written employment contract. Read the terms carefully and have things adjusted where necessary. You sign one for yourself and one for the employer. Naturally, you will receive a copy yourself. This ensures that both you and your new employer are clear about the agreements made.
The CLA recreation includes model employment contracts for all categories of employees covered by the CLA. The employer is obliged to use this format. You may make additional agreements as long as they do not conflict with the law or CLA.
Download an example employment contract annual hours standard here.
Are you being offered an employment contract? Always have it checked by us. Once you've signed a contract, it's not so easy to go back on it.
Employee categories
The recreation CLA recognises different categories of employees. For example, full-timers, part-timers, flexi-timers, employees with an annual hours contract, BBL students, and auxiliary workers.
Your employment contract specifies which category you fall under. Not all provisions in the CLA apply to all categories of employees. The recreation CLA has different provisions that only apply to a specific category of employee. Therefore, always check carefully which scheme applies to you. If you have any questions about this, please contact us.
Temporary agency workers
It is possible to start working through an employment agency. Usually, you are employed as a temporary agency worker for tasks that are temporary in nature. During this period, you are officially employed by the employment agency. The employment agency is responsible for paying your wages. Your wages are determined by the recreation CLA.
Self-employed (freelancer)
As a freelancer, you are hired for tasks and have the opportunity to work with different clients in the recreation sector. This means that no employment contract is drawn up. As a freelancer, you are responsible for sending invoices for the hours worked.