Whether you are an employer, permanent employee or flex worker: something will change for everyone if it is up to the Borstlap committee. He thinks the gap between people with a permanent contract and flex workers is now too large. The most important proposals from the committee at a glance.
Different employer-employee ratio
The weakest shoulders on the labor market now bear the heaviest burden, the committee notes. The advantages and disadvantages of flexible employment contracts are unfairly divided between employers, employees and employees themselves.
The advice: as a first step, let employers pay a higher premium for flexible employees in case they become unemployed. This therefore applies to all employees, except those who have an open-ended contract. Employers can also pay a flex allowance for them. After all, they benefit from their flexibility, without bearing the risk of it (such as the risk that you have no work). The minimum wage can also be raised. And employees may ask their boss earlier for different working hours or work locations.
On the other hand, employers would only have to continue paying employees who are long-term sick for a year. Now that is two years. They can also fire someone more easily if they do not function or if the employment relationship is disturbed. Moreover, they get more rights to offer staff different work or a different work location. And the maze of legal rules and obligations for employers must disappear so that they know where they stand.
Clearer contracts
At present, flexible contracts and freelancers are still regularly deployed in sham constructions, in order to end up under employer’s obligations. Moreover, the rules for this type of agreement are not always clear, and therefore difficult to enforce.
Three clear contract forms for the self-employed, temporary workers and for (un) certain time must change this.
In the first place, everyone should automatically be seen as an employee. This also applies to self-employed persons, unless it has been demonstrated that the employment relationship is different. The burden of proof must therefore be reversed. There must be clear criteria for the assessment.
In addition to a separate contract for the self-employed, temporary employees in a company must receive the same terms of employment as the people employed there. There must also be a maximum period for agency work.
Furthermore, temporary contracts can only last two years in total. And unclear constructions, whereby employees are hired out to different companies, should be banned.
Employees keep learning
Workers who need the most learning, such as flexible employees, are currently learning the least. They themselves invest relatively little in training, and there is also little enthusiasm among clients to pull the purse for the training of staff that can disappear again. The result: risk of knowledge obsolescence, which in the long run makes these people less employable for the work that is in demand in the long term.
To prevent this, from now on everyone must receive an individual development budget at birth. A national network of career stores must then provide support for your career and training. Because of the better training and development processes, employees will be unemployed for a shorter time, and as a result the unemployment benefit can rise again.
Taxes change
Now the government places a different burden on the work of the self-employed than on other workers. That must be more equal. Moreover, the tax on labor must be reduced for all workers, regardless of their contract, employment or form of company.
In addition, benefits are disappearing for entrepreneurs, such as the SME profit exemption. That must be phased out. The self-employed person’s deduction must also disappear, but the government has already set this in motion.
In addition, self-employed persons must also pay a premium in case they become incapacitated for work, and for the aforementioned training opportunities that they themselves can also make use of.
Active on the sidelines
As is well known, the committee also advocates disability insurance for all working people, including self-employed persons without employees. People who are unexpectedly out of work are expected to make an effort to find paid work again. The government has already responded positively to the insurance plan. The Labor Foundation is working on a proposal on this that is expected within a month.
What now
The recommendation of the Borstlap Committee on the future of the labor market evokes various reactions. Although politics, business and trade unions share the committee’s analysis that something really needs to change, opinions differ on how it should be done.
With his advice, Borstlap did not want to make a clear plan, but he did want to outline the agenda for the future. That is a strategic moment with the elections in March 2021 at the door. The labor market review will certainly become an important issue in the upcoming election campaign.
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