New deals let people who want to work from home continue to do so
With hybrid working regimes slowly becoming the norm, the home-office allowance appears to be gaining ground in the Netherlands. A survey by employers' association AWVN showed that more than 50% of employers now pay compensation to their employees working from home, compared to 20% five months ago, NOS reported.
Large companies, in particular, are frequently providing an allowance of between €26 and €43 net per month. AWVN expects that this compensation will likely play a part in future collective labor agreement negotiations.
At the same time, 60 percent of employers have already made agreements about working from home. An earlier survey carried out by AWVN showed that the vast majority of employees preferred working from home two times per week.
According to research by trade union FNV, their members have become substantially more in favor of working from home, Het Financieele Dagblad reported. In the future, seven out of ten employees in the financial industry, business services, and government want to combine working from home and in the office.
"They are more productive, especially for work that requires a lot of concentration, and more involved and can better align their private life with work," said AWVN representative Anne Megens.
Political parties D66 and GroenLinks have recently initiated a bill aiming to legalize the right to work from home. The AWVN thinks that such a law would be going too far. "Working from home is really something that you agree on between employer and employee because it has to suit you and the type of work you do," they argued.
"If it doesn't work out between employer and employee, you still have options, such as involving the Works Council or involving the union in the process. We also see that happening, agreements are being made everywhere," they said.
Nearly 70% of businesses have changed or are planning to change their commute arrangements in the near future. The transition to the 'where you work-scheme’ is the most popular. It includes both travel and home office allowance.
State Secretary Hans Vijlbrief of Finance has recently announced that the work from home allowance, just like the commuting allowance, will be specifically exempted from wage tax.
