The Dutch Transport Workers’ Union (FNV [1]) and the National Federation of Christian Trade Unions (CNV [2]) concluded a new collective labour agreement in June 2012, explicitly embracing workers from central and eastern Europe. [1] http://www.fnv.nl/ [2] http://www.cnv.nl/home/
The outgoing cabinet of the Rutte coalition gave the green light to Henk Kamp, the Social Affairs and Employment Minister, to simplify dismissal law. The main change is that employers may dismiss employees without a judicial review. Employers will pay unemployment benefit for up to six months and
The conservative, centre-right Rutte coalition cabinet collapsed on 23 April 2012. This minority cabinet consisted of the conservative-liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD [1]), with 31 seats, and the centre-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA [2]) with 21 seats. [1] http://www
The setting up of a new trade union organisation, the New Union Movement (DNV) to replace the Dutch Trade Union Federation (FNV [1]) was announced on 1 May 2012. [1] http://www.fnv.nl/english
In 2011, almost 13,360 foreigners registered with the body implementing employee insurance schemes (UWV), up from 9,756 in 2010. More than 60% of these workers originate from Bulgaria or Romania. Without a valid work permit, people from these countries may only work as self-employed individuals or
As outlined in the third European Demography Report 2010 [1], life expectancy is increasing in Europe and the proportion of workers to pensioners will alter significantly over the next few decades. To help cope with the pressures this will place on the Netherlands’ pension system, the pension
The largest trade union federation in the Netherlands, the Dutch Labour Federation (FNV [1]), was split by the pension agreement its leadership had reached with employer representatives in June 2011. Union members felt that raising the retirement age and assigning full responsibility for the
At the end of May 2011, the Senate (Eerste Kamer [1]) of the Dutch parliament voted in favour of a legislative proposal stipulating that 30% of all management positions must be occupied by women before 2016. Currently just 8% of managers are women. [1] http://www.eerstekamer.nl/
The Dutch government intends to make heavy cutbacks in its spending on defence. In April 2011, the Council of Ministers agreed an unprecedented and severe package of cutbacks on personnel and equipment totalling €1 billion to be completed within the space of four years. As many as 12,000 out of a
After four weeks of sporadic strikes each lasting up to several days, TNT Post [1] and the trade unions reached agreement in principle on the overall number of job losses at TNT. The number of redundancies will be almost halved from 4,500 to 2,300. In the end, TNT withdrew its initial demand that