Netherlands must improve working conditions to suit changing needs: SER

The Netherlands needs to improve its working conditions policy to meet the needs of the changing work landscape. Businesses, and SMEs in particular, need more support in drawing up risk inventory and evaluations, focusing on preventing employees from incurring health damage due to their work, the Social and Economic Council (SER) said in advice to the government.

“The risks in the workplace have not decreased in recent years, while this should be possible with a good occupational health and safety policy,” the SER said. “Developments like digitization and time- and place-independent working leads to new tasks.” And the working conditions policy must keep up with that.

The three leading causes of absenteeism in the Netherlands are high psychosocial workload, physical strain, and contact with hazardous substances. The working conditions policy must focus primarily on protecting workers from these factors, the SER said.

“A good working conditions policy starts with prevention: preventing people from incurring health damage due to their work,” the SER said. The starting point of that is a risk inventory and evaluation (RI&E), which provides a clear picture of the main risks in an organization.

“All companies are required to draw up a RI&E, but the majority of SMEs have not done so,” the SER said. The government needs to offer businesses more support in drawing up this document and also enforce the mandatory nature thereof, the SER said.

The council suggested obliging all companies to digitally report their RI&E and their basic contract with the occupational health and safety service to the Dutch Labor Inspectorate.