Bill against fake self-employment aimed at helping freelancers earning less than €36 p/h
The Dutch government is working on another law against employers using freelancers and self-employed to do employee work. The new bill wants to give freelancers earning less than 36 euros per hour a better chance of permanent employment and the certainty that comes from that, caretaker Minister Eddy van Hijum of Social Affairs and Employment announced.
The bill allows freelancers earning less than 36 euros per hour to claim employment. It is then up to the employer to demonstrate that they are working as a freelancer and not doing work that a permanent employee should be doing. If the employer fails to do so, the worker will be entitled to employment benefits like maternity and sick leave, dismissal protection, unemployment benefits, and a safety net in the event of incapacity for work. The 36 euros per hour threshold will be adjusted every year, linked to the minimum wage level.
“Work should give you security. About your income and your future,” Van Hijum said. “We are strengthening the position of people who are forced to work for a lower salary via a self-employment construction.”
The bill, called the Law on Clarification of Assessment of Employment Relationships and Legal Presumption, also lists criteria for when someone is an employee or a self-employed person. Among other things, it looks at whether someone is directly managed in their work, whether the client determines how and when the work is done, and whether the worker recruits new customers themselves.
“With this bill, we are making clearer the distinction between working as a self-employed person or as an employee. If you are managed in your work and you do not run any entrepreneurial risk, then you are an employee and you are entitled to the security that comes with that. And if you really work independently, then there is plenty of room for that,” Van Hijum said.
Van Hijum hopes that the new law can take effect on July 1 next year, pending approval by parliament and the Senate.
According to the Ministry, the number of self-employed people in the Netherlands doubled since 2003 to 1.3 million last year. An estimated 200,000 of them are not actually freelancers, but are doing work that employees should be doing at a lower rate and without the security a permanent employee gets.
The Dutch government has been trying to combat false self-employment for years because it leads to unfair competition between employees and freelancers. In January, the Tax Authority started enforcing stricter rules against false self-employment, resulting in a record decrease in the number of freelancers and self-employed.
