Dutch entrepreneurs protest against increasing temp work costs

Entrepreneurs in retail, hospitality, recreation, agriculture, and horticulture, among others, are protesting against the Labor Market in Balance Act, which is making temporary work more expensive. They will hand a manifesto with their concerns to the permanent parliamentary committee for social affairs and employment on Tuesday afternoon, NU.nl reports.

According to the entrepreneurs, the Law is making temporary work unaffordable by forcing high unemployment premiums and transition payments from day one. This also drastically reduces the possibility of deploying on-call staff and therefore makes it unworkable in practice.

Seasonal labor or filling in shortages in peak times can not be done with a permanent contract, according to the entrepreneurs. In these cases temporary contracts aren't a choice, but inherent to the nature of the work. Increasing the costs of temporary work will not result in more permanent contracts, but makes this type of work unaffordable, they said.

In the manifesto, the entrepreneurs call on politicians to adjust the Law so that there is no high unemployment premium and transition payment for seasonal workers and to keep the flexibility with on-call contracts.