Netherlands submits employment Action Plan to European Commission

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At the end of March 1998, the Dutch Government submitted its National Action Plan on employment to the European Commission. This Plan, which stems from agreements reached in November 1997 during the Employment Summit in Luxembourg, also served as a preparation for the European Council meeting in Cardiff in June 1998. The social partners were consulted when drawing up the plan.

The Dutch National Action Plan on employment, submitted to the European Commission at the end of March 1998, is a response to the Employment Guidelines arising from the November 1997 Employment Summit in Luxembourg (EU9711168F). The National Action Plans were to be discussed at the Cardiff European Council meeting in June 1998. However, national elections in the Netherlands in early May prompted the outgoing Government to leave sufficient room in the Dutch Plan for policy making by the new cabinet. The alternatives included in the plan will be further elaborated in the implementation report for the Vienna summit at the end of 1998. The social partners (trade unions and employers' associations) were consulted when drawing up the plan, especially in those policy areas for which they are most responsible.

During the 1994-7 period, the Dutch economy prospered: employment growth rates lay above those of most of its neighbouring countries and registered unemployment dropped to 6.5% of the workforce. Serious problems still remain however. The number of people without formal employment remains too high. This affects primarily so-called "hidden unemployed" and long-term unemployed people. Furthermore, unemployment is concentrated amongst the lesser-educated segment of the population and people from ethnic minorities. At the same time, an increasing number of vacancies are becoming harder to fill, especially jobs that require higher levels of education.

Other problems exist with respect to labour market participation by women and older people. While the rate of women with a job (47%) has already surpassed the EU average, they remain strongly underrepresented in the Dutch labour market as compared with male employees (74%). From an international perspective, the Netherlands lags far behind in terms of participation by people between 55 and 65 years of age: only one in four holds a job.

The Dutch Government wishes to stimulate participation in the labour market by creating, within the next five years, a situation where unemployed people who require extra training or work experience are quickly offered a plan to provide them with these skills. These plans must either lead to a job or significantly improve the person's chances on the labour market. The success of this strategy depends largely on a fundamental change in the way social security and employment services are organised.

In January 1998, the cabinet adopted the "Life-long learning" action programme (Een Leven Lang Leren) focusing on education and vocational training. One of the central elements of the programme is to use such methods as financial incentives to encourage people to take part in training programmes. Another objective is to provide intensive guidance to prevent participants from dropping out. The social partners have been asked to search for alternatives that could lead to concrete action in this context. In addition, fiscal incentives were introduced in early 1998 to stimulate training programmes within companies and to provide additional resources for older employees.

In order to reduce the gap between male and female participation in the labour market, the Government intends to expand opportunities for combining care with paid work by, for instance, providing a system of affordable childcare. Moreover, the Government is also looking into possible options for improving opportunities for taking leave and increasing the amount of part-time work.