Part-time Employment Act seeks to promote combining work and care

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In February 2000, the lower house of the Dutch Parliament passed the Part-time Employment Act, thus awarding employees the right to increase or reduce their working hours. The legislation is part of the framework Work and Care Act, which brings together numerous existing and new leave provisions and seeks to facilitate the reconciliation of employment and family care responsibilities. Research suggests that around 30% of Dutch couples would like to change the scope of their personal working week, and the government considers them an important target group for the new Act, with the aim that the same proportion of men and women will work part-time and share care duties. The new Act may well succeed in making employees with care responsibilities the standard reference point in companies' working time policy, something which the 1996 Working Time Act has so far failed to accomplish.

The lower house of the Dutch parliament adopted a Part-time Employment Act (Deeltijdwet) on 8 February 2000, following a lengthy process of discussion of possible legislation on this issue, lasting over two years (NL9803164F). The legislation gives employees the right to reduce or increase their working hours, with employers able to deny employee requests for such changes only on the grounds of specific conflicting business interests (NL9910170N). The liberal VVD party, part of the governing coalition, again voted against the Act, but the opposition CDA christian democrat party provided the necessary support. The voting behaviour of VVD has caused irritation within the government coalition, and the social democratic D66 in particular has now declared the VVD to be impossible to work with on "work and care" policy. The controversial Part-time Employment Act is part of the framework Work and Care Act (Kaderwet Arbeid en Zorg), which brings together numerous existing and new leave provisions (such as time off to care for family members) aimed at helping reconcile employment and family care responsibilities (NL9903128F).

Requests to change working hours

Employee requests to change their working hours have been tracked since the 1990s by the Organisation for Strategic Labour Market Research (Organisatie voor Strategisch Arbeidsmarktonderzoek_,_ OSA), and the research indicates that nearly one-third (30%) of employees in couples wish to adapt their working hours in line with their partner's schedule ("Trendrapport aanbod arbeid" [Labour supply trend report], OSA, The Hague (1999)). A recurrent theme is that men wish to work less while women want to work more. The Central Bureau of Statistics (Centraal Bureau van de Statistiek, CBS) has also charted requests for changes in working time over recent years, but at the level of individuals rather than couples. In 1996, 10% of the male workers surveyed and 14% of the female workers indicated a preference to work fewer hours, and a total of 8% expressed a desire to work additional hours. According to CBS data, it is predominantly older and female employees employed in full-time positions who express a desire to work fewer hours. In 1997, the CBS investigated the degree to which requests had actually been translated into changes in working hours. Of the total workforce, 15% had succeeded in adapting their working week, with 3% of the men and 6% of the women extending their working week, and 8% of the men and 16% of the women reducing their hours. Among part-time employees, 12% had increased their working week, while 10% of full-time employees had shortened their working week (see "Meer of minder werken" [Work more or less], CLE Schobben, in Sociaal-Economische Dynamiek 1998).

Clearly, couples in particular display a strong desire to adapt their working hours. Despite being revealed through years of study, these wishes have remained largely unrealised. The Part-time Employment Act may well provide the necessary support. The CBS data indicating that 15% of employees have been able to adjust their working week lags behind the OSA figures of 30% among couples. In addition, the statistics indicate that it is older and full-time female employees who are cutting their hours while, from an equality perspective, it might be assumed that fathers with young children would want to work less and mothers in limited-hour part-time positions would want to work more. The cabinet took the latter group into special consideration when submitting the proposed legislation on changing working hours.

More sharing of work and care

The Part-time Employment Act, along with proposed leave provisions, not only forms part of the framework Work and Care Act but also fits in with an entire series of proposals—including childcare as a blanket provision and extended after-school childcare facilities—designed to offer women more employment opportunities and men more leeway in providing care. In the Netherlands, 60% of the female workforce and 15% of the male workforce are employed on a part-time basis, the highest percentages in Europe. While part-time work is mainly concentrated at the beginning and end of a man's career, it is the norm for women in the middle age brackets, the majority of whom have children and work an average of 12 hours a week. The fact that the typical Dutch household has 1.5 incomes is due to this scenario and underscores the fact that the partners of these women opt for a full-time working week. The cabinet, in line with the wishes revealed by the OSA survey, now wants to create a "combined scenario" of dual-income households, where men and women alike have a "three-quarters job" and share responsibility for care duties at home, engaging external parties where necessary. In this way, every employee would bear responsibility for care duties (this view is set out in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment's 1999 document, Op weg naar een nieuw evenwicht tussen arbeid en zorg[Towards a new balance between working and care]).

Working Time Act

The current Working Time Act (Arbeidstijdenwet) which came into force on 1 January 1986, also takes employee care responsibilities into consideration, making these obligations one of the deciding factors when determining working hours collectively. The Act is intended to offer companies more leeway (within certain limits) in negotiating working hours with employee representatives (referred to as the "consultation arrangement"). The Act also specifies a standard working time model. Under pressure from the lower house of parliament, an objective was added relating to application of the Act, stating that specific account must be taken of the fact that employees have care duties in addition to job-related responsibilities, thus broadening the scope of the Act's objectives. Since the law's introduction, the Labour Inspectorate (Arbeidsinspectie) has conducted two surveys into its practical consequences. The results reveal that, of the 121 collective agreements investigated, nine include provisions that take employees' personal circumstances into account in determining working hours. The Labour Inspectorate ascertained that, overall, only general provisions on drawing up rosters in consultation with employees prevail in collective agreements ("Arbeidstijdenwet in 1998. Een onderzoek naar de Arbeidstijdenwet en het Arbeidstijdenbesluit in CAO's en in bedrijven" [Working Time Act in 1998. An investigation of the Working Time Act and the Working Time Decree in collective agreements and companies], Labour Inspectorate, The Hague (1999)). The use of the new Working Time Act to achieve a new balance between work and care was evident in a clearly negligible amount of cases. It remains to be seen whether the Part-time Employment Act, which awards an individual right to alter working hours, will offer greater potential for change.

Commentary

A strong traditional family ethos characterises the Netherlands. Up until the late 1950s, legislation prescribed that married women were not obliged to work outside of the home. In the 1970s, this provision was still very much alive culturally, materialising in ideas about the importance of mothers staying home with their children. Labour market participation on the part of married Dutch women only began to rise in 1975, but growth was swift and intense, and has since more than doubled, reaching the average European level of participation in 1995. The introduction of facilities such as childcare lagged behind these developments, contributing to the high proportion of part-time female employees in the Dutch workforce. The government hopes to turn lost ground into a major leap forward with the "combined scenario" of men and women sharing both work and care. Part-time employment must be viewed as a positive choice instead of an emergency remedy by both men and women. The Part-time Employment Act is designed to facilitate this process. (Marianne Grünell, HSI)