The situation
A client’s activities and payroll split across sectors
A Breda staffing and payroll company is taking over payroll for a client that builds and installs climate systems, with a workshop in Tilburg and installation crews across the south. Its Austrian sister company in Linz faces the same question for a client that manufactures and repairs machinery. Both need to know which collective agreement sets the pay.
The candidates are obvious: two or three agreements, each with a scope clause. Choosing between them is not. It depends on how the client’s activity is measured, how the courts have read those clauses, and in Austria on how a business with more than one trade is classified. Getting it wrong means back pay.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- In the Netherlands, extension makes it binding
- A Dutch collective agreement binds employers who are members of the signing associations. When the Minister declares it generally binding, it binds every employer within its scope for the period of the declaration.
- The scope clause decides
- Each agreement defines its own scope, usually by the employer’s main activity, often measured by the share of wage costs or hours spent on it. The test comes from the agreement’s own text, not from a general rule.
- Austria: chamber membership brings coverage
- In Austria, employers are generally bound by collective agreements through compulsory membership of the Economic Chamber, and the applicable agreement follows the trade licence held. Labour law has its own rules for businesses that carry on more than one trade.
- Agency workers follow the hirer’s terms
- Under the Temporary Agency Work Directive, agency workers are entitled to basic working and employment conditions at least equal to the hirer’s own staff, subject to the derogations national law allows. Which agreement applies at the client matters for the agency too.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Dutch client, 140 employees: about 55% of wage costs on installing climate systems at customer sites, 45% on manufacturing in its own workshop. Which collective agreement applies, how have the courts measured main activity under scope clauses, and is either agreement declared generally binding?
You start with
A client’s activities and payroll split across sectors
- 01
Upload the candidate agreements
Add the collective agreements you are choosing between and the client’s activity data. azta reads the scope clauses and refers back to the passage it relied on.
File upload· Pro - 02
Research the rules
Ask how applicability is decided in each country. azta cites the Dutch and Austrian legislation on collective agreements and the EU directive.
Cited research· Free - 03
Find the decisions on scope
Ask for decisions where courts decided which agreement applied to a mixed business. azta searches Dutch and Austrian case law and links each decision to the full text.
Case-law search - 04
Draft the note
Ask for a note with the facts, the scope test, the decisions and the conclusion. Edit it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro You send
A note on which collective agreement applies, with the decisions that support it
What you get
A note on which collective agreement applies, with the decisions that support it
Internal note · draft
Tilburg client: applicable collective agreement
Facts. Based on last year’s payroll data, the client’s wage costs split roughly 55% installation and 45% manufacturing. Both candidate agreements define their scope by the employer’s main activity.
Assessment. On the client’s figures, installation is the main activity, which points to the installation sector agreement. Annex 1 lists the decisions found on how main activity is measured under similar scope clauses, with a short note on each.
Next steps. Confirm whether the installation agreement is currently declared generally binding and for which period, and check the client’s membership of an employers’ association. The split is close enough to review each year.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
18 minutes a month
At €90 an hour, that is all the time Pro (€27 a month) has to take off your desk to cover its price.
Example figures. Replace them with your own.
- Hours back a year
- 40
- Capacity at your rate
- €3,564
- More collective-agreement questions a quarter
- 1.5
- Return on Pro
- 11×
- Research
- Drafting
- Your review
A scenario you set, not a promise. The hours that come back go to another client, or deeper into this one.
Want these numbers on your team’s real workload?
Book a demoSources azta searches here
- wetten.overheid.nl
- Rechtspraak.nl
- RIS
- EUR-Lex · Curia
What stays with you
- The client’s activity data and its accuracy.
- The conclusion on which agreement applies.
- Communicating it to the client and the workers.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta hold the collective agreements?
- Not for every sector. Upload the agreements you are choosing between and azta reads their scope clauses alongside the law and the case law.
- Which courts does it search?
- The published decisions in its source register, including Dutch and Austrian collections. Coverage varies by country; the register lists each collection.
- Can the note go to the client?
- Yes. Edit it in Canvas and export it to Word with the decisions referenced.
