From the end of this year, Hema is removing all gender indications from its children's clothing. In 300 of the 700 Hema branches, the children's clothing department will no longer be labeled "boys" and "girls", but simply "kids". Hema is the first Dutch retail chain to take this step, NU.nl reports.
Business
Sep 20 '17 12:50
Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem of Finance thinks that there should be an emergency procedure in politics that will allow parliament to reassess unexpected additional costs above a certain amount, even if they are of a compulsory nature, he said in an interview with Financieele Dagblad, specifically referring to additional costs for nursing home care.
Sep 20 '17 10:10
Tata Steel, the parent company of the steel plant in IJmuiden, and the German ThyssenKrupp are merging their European Steelworks. The two companies expect that the merge will result in the loss of 4 thousand jobs throughout Europe, they said in a joint statement, AD reports.
Half of the jobs will be lost in the production branch and the other half in the administrative branch. The job losses will be distributed evenly across the two companies. The consequences for jobs in the IJmuiden plant, were not specified.
Sep 19 '17 08:25
Today is the last Budget Day for the departing Rutte II cabinet. In tradition and ceremony, the day is expected to look like every other Budget Day, with politicians decked out in fancy hats, the Royals arriving at the Ridderzaal in The Hague in a carriage and the famous balcony scene after the throne speech. But given the current VVD and PvdA government's departing status, no big news is expected in the budget. Big changes are left up to the new government.
Sep 18 '17 09:27
Two flights between Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and Dublin are among the 56 flights Ryanair canceled on Monday. On Saturday the Irish budget airline announced that it is canceling between 40 and 50 flights every day for the next six weeks because it "messed up in the planning of pilot holidays", according to a statement on Facebook. Hundreds of furious travelers took to social media to complain about the airline.
Sep 15 '17 15:10
Increasingly severe storms due to climate change means increasing storm damage, and the damage counter is rising faster than expected, according to an analysis by the Dutch association of insurers. In the worst case scenario, storm damage will increase by over 260 million euros annually, compared to the current situation, the association calculates, RTL Nieuws reports.
Sep 15 '17 14:30
The new greenhouse gas policy implemented in 2005 to stimulate the Netherlands industry to reduce their emissions, had hardly any effect. Over the past 12 years, greenhouse gas emissions by Dutch manufacturers only decreased by 4 percent, the Volkskrant reports based on figures from the Dutch emissions authority NEa.
Sep 15 '17 11:10
The average purchasing power of Dutch increased by 2.7 percent last year, the strongest increase since 2007, Statistics Netherlands announced on Friday. Despite this, one in three Dutch saw their purchasing power decrease, NU.nl reports.
The increase can be attributed to a package of debt relief measures and an average of 1.8 percent increase in collective bargaining agreement wages, according to the stats office. The 0.3 percent increase in consumer prices, pushed purchasing power down somewhat.
Sep 15 '17 10:30
The Ministry of Defense will be "under siege" from its own staff on Friday. Soldiers will block all entrances and exits of the Ministry's building in a labor action for better working conditions, the military unions announced, ANP reports.
Defense's military and civilian workers have been without a collective bargaining agreement since 2013, according to the news wire. Negotiations for a new agreement stranded in the spring. The unions rejected a final offer by the Ministry, which included a wage increase of 2 percent and money for training.
Sep 15 '17 08:48
Travelers flying from Schiphol on a KLM flight today, can expect delays. The airline's cabin crew members are performing labor actions on Friday to protest against KLM's decision to reduce the number of flight attendants on some long flights. Cabin crew members taking part in the actions - members of union VNC - will strike for an hour before each flight. The actions take place between 5:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m., RTL Nieuws reports.
Sep 14 '17 15:50
Income disparities in the Netherlands remained virtually unchanged since 2001, despite the financial crisis and the aging population, Statistics Netherlands reported on Thursday.
Disparities in income from salary, profit and wealth rose. But this rise was reversed by increasing redistribution through social benefits, taxes and premiums. And while increased labor participation among women reduced the inequality for redistribution, the aging population and economic crisis increased this inequality, according to the stats office.
Sep 14 '17 12:30
Noord-Brabant school community De Rooi Pannen is taking over most of its pupils' study fees and costs. From next year, the parents of the around 8 thousand De Rooi Pannen pupils will only have to pay the legally mandatory course- or lesson fees and the purchase costs of working clothes, Omroep Brabant reports.
Sep 13 '17 16:00
Large Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) filed a license application to set up a new subsidiary in Amsterdam, so that the financial group can continue to serve customers in the European Union after the Brexit, the bank said in a statement.
"The new subsidiary in Amsterdam will ensure that the Group can continue to provide these services to its EU clients, even if the cross-border passport is lost as a result of Brexit," the bank noted. Currently, the EU customers are served by a subsidiary based in the United Kingdom.
Sep 13 '17 09:18
State Secretary Sharon Dijksma of Infrastructure and Environment plans to reduce noise pollution on the Veluwe after Lelystad Airport's expansion with a different flight route and by making planes fly at a higher altitude, she told the Tweede Kamer, NU.nl reports.
Sep 12 '17 16:50
The Netherlands again saw an increase in the average rent price during the first half of this year. On average, tenants who moved home paid 10.54 euros per square meter for a rental home in the free sector, 6.9 percent more than last year, according to figures from branch organization for real estate managers VGM NL and the Dutch association of real estate agents NVM, NU.nl reports.
The figures are based on on about 35 thousand free sector rental agreements on an annual basis. This includes only new rental agreements, and not tenants who stayed on in a rented property.
Sep 12 '17 13:30
The German A3 highway towards Arnhem will be closed for five days next week due to the discovery of what is believed to be a World War II bomb under the road, AD reports.
The road will be closed between Wessel and Hamminkeln, about 50 kilometers southeast of Arnhem, from 7:00 a.m. on Monday September 18th to 8:00 p.m. on Friday September 22nd, according to the newspaper. German media warns of long traffic jams towards the Netherlands.
Sep 12 '17 11:50
Thousands of high school students across the Netherlands are still waiting for their school books. School book supplier Van Dijk Educatie is struggling with major delivery problems, De Stentor reports.
Schools calling Van Dijk to complain are met with an automated message in which the company acknowledges the problems, according to the newspaper. The supplier estimates that about 7,500 high school pupils do not have their complete learning package yet. Some haven't received any books.
Sep 12 '17 10:30
Eight out of ten still-working millionaires in the Netherlands are self-employed, Statistics Netherlands reported on Tuesday. They can mainly be found in agriculture, trade, financial services and business services. 19 percent of still working millionaires are farmers.
This is based on Statistics Netherlands data dated 1 January 2015. On that date the Netherlands counted 106 thousand households with a capital of one million euros or more. About two thirds of these millionaires had work as the main source of income. The rest consists mainly of retirees.
Sep 12 '17 09:50
Dutch food-science company DSM made it to second place on Fortune's "Change the World" list - a ranking of companies that have a positive social impact on the world through their core business. DSM was praised for its efforts in fighting malnutrition and famine with its fortified-nutrition products.
Sep 12 '17 09:10
Dutch food and consumer product safety authority NVWA will get an extra 25 million euros next year due to concerns about the authority's capacity following the fipronil contaminated egg scandal, according to RTL Nieuws. The government will announce this extra investment on Budget Day, sources told the broadcaster.
Sep 11 '17 16:30
The number of bars in the Netherlands decreased by 4 percent to 8,950 over the past five years, according to hospitality consulting company Van Spronsen & Partners. The consultancy attributes the decrease in bars to Dutch teenagers and young people being increasingly focused on a healthier lifestyle, AD reports.
Sep 11 '17 15:50
Activist group Fossil Free Culture protested in front of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam on Sunday. The group believes that the museum should not be sponsored by Shell, NU.nl reports.
The black clad protestors used torn and broken umbrellas to represent landscapes spoiled by Shell's fossil fuel mining, oil spills and carbon emissions, the group said on Twitter.
The Van Gogh museum will not press charges against the protesters, a spokesperson said to NU.nl, calling their demonstration a "peaceful action" that the museum regards as "freedom of expression".
Sep 11 '17 12:30
The government subsidy for making homes more energy efficient, is running low after one year, the Volkskrant reports. The largest part of the subsidy amount is intended for homeowners. That art of the grant is already almost completely up, according to the newspaper.
Only homeowners associations can still claim subsidies.
Sep 11 '17 11:50
Power company TenneT failed to meet its legal obligations, which resulted in a massive power outage in Diemen in March 2015, the Dutch consumer and market authority ACM concluded in a dispute filed by steel producer Tata Steel, ANP reports.
