ENABLING ACT
| NETHERLANDS |
| MACHTIGINGSWET ENABLING ACT |
Act passed in 1974 (under the full title of Enabling Act on Income Formation and Employment Protection) for the purposes of coping with the feared possible consequences of the first oil-price shock. It gave the Minister for Social Affairs and Employment powers, for the year 1974, to take regulatory action on his own initiative in regard to pay and conditions in both the private and public sectors, dividends, rents and leases, termination of employment, the occupation of jobs by foreign workers and working hours. Contravention of such provisions was a punishable offence.
The Enabling Act followed the Wage Formation Act of 1970, which had had the precise purpose of ending an era of centrally directed pay policy , and allowed a temporary return to such a policy.
Please note: the European industrial relations glossaries were compiled between 1991 and 2003 and are not updated. For current material see the European industrial relations dictionary.