Houtman, Irene

Employees with mental health problems are more likely to succeed in returning to work if they have active support from a supervisor, and if they can access cognitive behavioural therapy. New measures supporting such workers in the Netherlands are promising, but there needs to be an overall growth in jobs for these to be effective.

Job autonomy – how far employees can regulate their own work – has been declining for decades in much of Europe. However, Dutch employees began to report a steady fall only in 2008. The Netherlands Working Conditions Survey (NWCS) indicates autonomy has shrunk most in the business services sector, among young employees and those with temporary contracts.

In common with the rest of Europe, the workforce in the Netherlands is ageing. The formal retirement age in the Netherlands recently increased from 65 to 67. Surveys based on the earlier retirement age showed that an increasing percentage of employees were willing to work until the official retirement age and this proportion has been increasing since employees were first asked about their retirement preferences in 2005.

This report looks at trends in working conditions across different sectors over a five-year period 1995-2000. Basing its findings on the Third European Survey on Working Conditions carried out by the Foundation in 2000 in the 15 EU Member States and Norway, it examines the quality of working life in eighteen different sectors. It analyses the impact of aspects such as physical risks, working hours, and work organisation on the worker’s health and well-being. Factors contributing to a favourable or unfavourable work and psychosocial environment include the level of job pressures, control over one’s work, skills matching and learning opportunities, task flexibility, and social support from colleagues and boss. The report concludes that in general the most negative changes are an increase in job demands, resulting in work-related stress, and a general deskilling and decrease in job control.

The quality of work in the Netherlands remains quite stable, with a small increase in exposure to time pressure. Despite the stable working conditions, fewer workers feel that protective measures are needed. Changes in work disability regulations have led to far fewer workers dropping out of employment due to disability. However, it appears that some employees with health issues voluntarily choose to leave the workforce.

In the Netherlands, many employees leave the workforce well before the official retirement age of 65, but the issue of continuing to work until and beyond 65 is increasingly the focus of debate.

Changes in the content and organisation of work in recent decades have resulted in an intensification of work, which is commonly regarded as a cause of stress. This report presents trends in the risks and consequences of work-related stress, and identifies how these can be prevented. The analysis is based on national surveys and research information available in the EU, as well as recent research findings.

Secondary statistical analyses on the fourth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) have been commissioned with the aim of providing a sector perspective of working conditions. This report aims to: identify sectoral profiles on working conditions for the EWCS data collected in 2005 at NACE 1 and 2-digit level; present trends based on a comparison with previous versions of the EWCS (1995, 2000 and 2001–2002) at sectoral level (in 1990–1991, a different sectoral classification was used, which makes trend analysis including this first year of the survey impossible); and identify differences between country clusters in sectoral profiles.

The quality of work as well as health complaints in the Netherlands appear to be relatively stable. Pace of work seems to be on the increase again and more people are working in excess of their contractual hours. Notwithstanding changes in disability legislation, psychological disorders remain a factor in dropping out of employment. Overall, absenteeism has been decreasing recently although work-related illnesses tend to result in longer spells of absence.

Working during pregnancy may expose women to certain risk factors, such as heavy physical work, exposure to chemicals and high work pressure, which could negatively influence their health and that of their unborn child. Furthermore, due to their different body size and changing functional capacities, work may impose a relatively high demand on pregnant women. As a result, pregnant women may be at risk of developing more health problems and be more often absent from work than working women who are not pregnant. Therefore, a number of safety rules and regulations have been implemented in the Netherlands, all of which are designed to protect pregnant as well as breastfeeding women and their children, and prevent any work absenteeism in relation to the pregnancy. However, despite these regulations, pregnant women in the Netherlands still show a higher rate of absenteeism compared with non-pregnant working women.