Netherlands could give bonuses to full time workers to fight staff shortages

The Cabinet can take big steps towards solving the staff shortages that now affect all sectors of the Dutch labor market by making it worth it for people to work more, according to coalition parties VVD and D66. Give people a bonus for working full time, faction leaders Sophie Hermans (VVD) and Jan Paternotte (D66) said in the budget debate on Thursday. A majority of parliament is in favor of such a proposal and called on the Cabinet to put a plan in place by December. However, the FNV labor union suggested it was a stunt.

With the Tweede Kamer members urgently pushing the issue, Social Affairs Minister Karien van Gennip said the Cabinet is already investigating the possibility of a full-time bonus. The minister said the Cabinet is considering long term and short term ways to deal with staff shortages, which could expand on a bonus plan which was initially intended just for people working in education or care provision. In those fields "it would really be nice if people stepped forward and began working a few more hours," Van Gennip said.

The Netherlands is facing widespread staff shortages resulting in working parents needing time off because their kids can’t go to school, people’s surgeries getting canceled because the hospital doesn’t have enough staff, and Schiphol going from the world’s best airport to the world champion for waiting in line, Paternotte said. And the Netherlands hasn’t even reached the peak of its aging population yet. “I fear that people don't understand how big this problem is. In 2040, one in three Netherlands residents will be over 65.”

And at the same time, many people are still working only part-time. “We still hear too often that work does not pay and that if you want to start working from welfare benefits, if you want to work a few more hours, you hardly make any progress and sometimes even earn less,” Hermans said. “That’s really crazy. We simply cannot afford to let this lie. We need more people and people to be willing to work more, and that requires getting good pay in return.

According to the two parliamentarians, a bonus for full-time workers is an easy way to reward more work better and encourage people to work more. “That is really rewarding more hours,” Hermans said. “I believe that this should be possible and that this measure can really contribute to this issue. I ask the government to not only tell us why it is not possible but also think along about making it work.”

“If we want to defuse this time bomb, we must break taboos. We have to start now. In the Netherlands, we work the fewest hours in all of Europe. It can’t go on like that,” Paternotte said. “What about that, I ask the Prime Minister. Would the Cabinet make specific work of a full-time bonus, at least in healthcare, education, and childcare?”

Jesse Klaver, leader of opposition party GroenLinks, said he would support a full-time bonus as a temporary instrument to encourage people to work more hours. But during that time, structural changes need to be made to the tax system so that people don’t get less income for working more. These four coalition pirates have been promising a tax reform since they first took office in the Rutte III government in 2017, he said. “The Cabinet has now had six years to draw up a design for this. Where is it?” Klaver said.

There are obstacles to enacting such a plan. The Cabinet does not know who will pay for it. Additionally, the country's human rights institute previously said that full-time bonuses are discriminatory against women, who are more likely to be employed part-time.

"There is the assumption that anyone can work full-time just like that," said FNV union leader Kitty Jong. "It is a very complicated problem," she said, disappointed that the proposed solution is one in which politicians on stage are shown in a positive light. "That makes me very angry," she told Eenvandaag.

"It's complicated. The point that the Institute for Human Rights makes is, 'What about women who do not work full-time?' Because we are mainly talking about women. They are so-called 'part-time princesses.' But part-time princesses only exist because 'full-time princes' don't want to do the job," she said, quoting a colleague. "Someone has to take care of the children and provide informal care. We live on the assumption that everyone can work full-time, but that is not the case." She added that many women provide unpaid work, including informal care at home. That work is not only unpaid, but also unpaid overtime, she said.

Additionally, she argued that many employers prefer to give two different women part-time positions, instead of giving one woman a full-time job as a gender biased way of managing staffing risk. "What will really help against a staff shortage is a structural solution to make work attractive. You also need to further regulate the labor market so that employers can no longer get away with small contracts."

While the Netherlands is often viewed as being ahead of the curve on gender issues, Jong also noted that cultural stereotypes about women remain. She pointed to a study from McKinsey that showed how important women are to the workforce, and simultaneously, how underutilized they are as a group. "We are not such a progressive people. Eighty percent of the Dutch said in that study by McKinsey that women with children working more than three days is actually unacceptable."