Employers in the hospitality sector, the temporary employment sector and the building industry are concerned about the shift to a new redundancy system, the Financieele Dagblad says on Tuesday.

They are worried the new rules covering employees with flexible contracts will entitle these workers to an additional, back-dated payment when their contract is up. The small and medium-sized firm lobby group MKB-Nederland is urging social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher to rethink.

The problem centres on a new way of calculating employment history, in which temporary contracts are added up. In extreme cases, this could mean a seasonal worker could end up with six months’ salary, the organisation claims.

MKB chairman Michaël van Straalen told the FD this is a flaw in the system and has written to Asscher expressing his concerns.

Currently employers have to ensure their temporary staff have at least three months between contracts, if the employer wants to avoid having to offer them a permanent contract. New legislation has extended the gap to six months but the law is retrospective.

This means that employers could be faced with claims from people going back up to 15 years who technically have a permanent contract in the light of the new legislation.

‘This could make seasonal work 30% more expensive,’ a spokesman for the hospitality industry lobby group Horeca Nederland said.