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Erwerbsverlauf und sozialer Schutz in Europa pp 339–356Cite as

Working More, Longer, and Healthier: Solutions and Pitfalls in The Netherlands

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Abstract

As any other European country, the Netherlands is facing the challenge of an ageing population. This has led to many policy measures that aim at an increase of the working population, especially among women and older persons in order to cushion the consequences of population ageing. These measures include stricter qualifying conditions for sickness benefits and disability pensions, more incentives to work, strong limitations of early retirement, a raising of the pensionable age commensurate to life expectancy, and attempts to facilitate a better balance between work and private life. The aim of this chapter is to review the measures that have been put in place in the Netherlands to increase employment among two vulnerable categories of employees: those who are (fully or partly) incapacitated for work because of illness or limitations (short-term or long-term) and employees in the older age groups. It is shown that some measures have been rather successful indeed. However, several challenges remain, such as the problem of risk selection, the high number of flex workers entering the sickness and invalidity schemes, the increasing differences in social security between employees with permanent contracts and flex workers, the still low average number of working hours, and the (im)balance between work and private life.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cf. www.uwv.nl (accessed 10 November 2016), ‘Stappenplan bij ziekte’ (Roadplan regarding sickness).

  2. 2.

    In this paper, maternity benefit is not considered.

  3. 3.

    Website CBS.nl Statistics, Theme ‘Arbeid en sociale zekerheid’, ‘sociale zekerheid’, ‘arbeidsongeschiktheid’, ‘in- en uitstroom’, available at CBS StatLine http://statline.cbs.nl (accessed 10 November 2016).

  4. 4.

    Act of 4 October 2012. For an overview of the Act in English, see Boekel de Nerée 2012.

  5. 5.

    These three instruments on social security are closely connected. Both the European Social Charter – Article 12(2) – and the European Code of Social Security directly refer to ILO Convention No. 102.

  6. 6.

    For a discussion of these principles, see Dijkhoff 2012; Hofman and Pennings 2013, pp. 27–60.

  7. 7.

    ILO Convention No. 102, Art. 71(1); also included in the European Code of Social Security and the European Social Charter.

  8. 8.

    International Labour Organisation, Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations: Individual Direct Request concerning C102 (Netherlands) 1998.

  9. 9.

    In 1995, the period of wage pay during sickness was 2 weeks for employers with 15 or less employees and 6 weeks for employers with more than 15 employees.

  10. 10.

    Flexible Working Act (Wet flexibel werken).

  11. 11.

    11 Working After Pensionable Age Act (Wet werken na de AOW-gerechtigde leeftijd).

  12. 12.

    Adjustment of Working Hours Act (Wet aanpassing arbeidsduur).

  13. 13.

    The national pension for a single person amounts to 70 % of the minimum wage.

  14. 14.

    Flexible Working Act, Art. 2(5) (translation by the author).

  15. 15.

    Flexible Working Act, Art. 2(9–11) (translation by the author).

  16. 16.

    Flexible Working Act, Art. 2(6) (translation by the author).

  17. 17.

    Rechtbank Amsterdam, sector Kanton (subdistrict court), 14 March 2007.

  18. 18.

    Rechtbank Leeuwarden, sector Kanton (subdistrict court), 4 February 2003.

  19. 19.

    The pensionable age in the Netherlands in 2017 is 65 years and 9 months.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Utrecht University School of Law, Newtonlaan 201, 3584 BH, Utrecht, Netherlands

    Tineke Dijkhoff

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  1. Tineke Dijkhoff
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Correspondence to Tineke Dijkhoff .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Sozialrecht und Sozialpolitik, München, Germany

    Eva Maria Hohnerlein

  2. Institut de l’Ouest: Droit et Europe (UMR CNRS 6262), Université de Rennes 1 , Rennes, France

    Sylvie Hennion

  3. Puyrolland, France

    Otto Kaufmann

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Dijkhoff, T. (2018). Working More, Longer, and Healthier: Solutions and Pitfalls in The Netherlands. In: Hohnerlein, E., Hennion, S., Kaufmann, O. (eds) Erwerbsverlauf und sozialer Schutz in Europa. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-56033-4_32

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-56033-4_32

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