Growing tomatoes in winter is expensive. And with rising energy prices, it will only get more expensive. That is why the Westland grower CombiVliet mainly harvests during the summer months. But give all those seasonal workers a permanent contract? That is not possible, says personnel manager Martine van der Meer. “We cannot offer year-round work.”
Nevertheless, the government wants permanent employment to become the norm again. Last week, Minister Karien van Gennip (Social Affairs, CDA) presented all kinds of plans to discourage flexible working as much as possible. For example, the on-call contract will be abolished, except for students and schoolchildren, temporary workers will be given more rights, and it must now become impossible to string together endless temporary contracts.
In the Netherlands, the share of temporary employees is high; in the EU, only Spain has proportionally more. The government wants to change that. Flex work must become less attractive for employers. Employees must be given more security about work and income.
Many employers also believe that flexible working has gone too far in the Netherlands. “People get a separate contract time and again, while there is enough work,” says Van der Meer. “And they get kicked out when they have to get a permanent contract.”
However, that does not mean that she supports the cabinet plans. Because does Minister Van Gennip take seasonal work into account enough? CombiVliet simply needs a lot of temporary workers around the summer, says the personnel manager.
And her temporary workers, mostly labor migrants from Central and Eastern Europe, do not all want permanent employment, she says. “They want to go home during the holiday season.” Or they refuse a permanent contract because they then have to look for a house themselves. “I can’t arrange a house for permanent employees, our employment agency does that for its staff.”
exam week
Some employees want flexibility themselves, says Eelco Kuijpers, operational director of catering giant Meyer Beheer, which owns about sixty cafés and restaurants in the Netherlands. Young workers in particular, he says, want to work when it suits them. “So that they don’t have to ask for time off for each exam week.”
About half of its 2,500 employees are on-call workers, Kuijpers estimates – almost all of these are pupils and students. As a result, the new rules hardly seem to affect him, because pupils and students will soon – as the only group – still receive an on-call contract. Yet Kuijpers is critical. “Even more laws and regulations are detrimental to the catering industry.”
The national employers’ clubs VNO-NCW and MKB-Nederland do support the cabinet plans. This is because they are based on an agreement that the employers already concluded with the unions last year. Together they wrote an advice about the rules surrounding work. The government is now embracing that.
The fact that employers support the curtailment of flexible work is a turning point: for years they have defended the importance of ‘flex’. “Now we have established a number of things: we no longer want that,” says Guusje Dolsma of VNO-NCW. Such as on-call workers: “We are tackling that some workers have to be available for everything and are entitled to nothing.”
My migrant workers have fat cars and build a house in their home country – that is their pension
Martine van der Meer personnel manager CombiVliet
The new rules could hurt some employers – including tomato grower CombiVliet. Temporary work is expected to become more expensive, because temporary workers will soon have to receive employment conditions that are equivalent to those of their colleagues who are directly employed. And if CombiVliet spends more money on temporary workers, this ultimately leads to a more expensive tomato. “Then we have to raise our prices,” says Van der Meer, “which is on top of inflation.”
Van der Meer understands that the cabinet wants to give temporary workers more rights. But she doesn’t understand why the same should apply to migrant workers who come here for a few seasons to “make a lot of money quickly.” According to her, the image of migrant workers as “poor slobs” is no longer correct. “My migrant workers have fat cars and build a house in their homeland – that is their pension.”
Predictable work
The labor market cannot do without flex workers, says Ronald Dekker, labor economist at research institute TNO. There will always be seasonal work, and companies must be able to cope with periods with more or less work.
But how many flex workers does a company need? That’s the “million dollar question”, says Dekker. Many companies have a larger ‘flexible shell’ than is strictly necessary, he sees. For example, supermarket chains often work with temporary workers in their distribution centers. Dekker doubts whether this is necessary: ”It is precisely there that the flow of work can be reasonably predicted.”
In recent decades, he has seen various ministers make attempts to reduce flexible work, without much success. Dekker: “Creating new rules is not difficult. They do maintain.” The labor inspectorate has limited capacity and flex workers are not quick to sound the alarm because of their vulnerable position. “They are generally not at the forefront of demanding their rights.”
The government now wants to make these people less vulnerable by giving them more rights. At the same time, because it is becoming more expensive, flexible work must only be used for what it was once intended: real temporary work.
On the other hand, the cabinet is making permanent contracts a little less ‘fixed’. That was essential for employers. “It must become more attractive to hire people,” says Dolsma of VNO-NCW.
The plans that the cabinet will develop for this also arise from the advice of unions and employers. The ‘part-time unemployment benefit’, for example: an employer who suddenly loses a lot of turnover, may temporarily have employees work fewer hours. This also lowers labor costs. The employee receives a supplementary benefit from the UWV.
The introduction of these measures must take place ‘approximately simultaneously’ with the curtailment of flex contracts, says Dolsma. Although the elaboration of these plans encounters implementation problems and disagreements. Take the question of who should bear the costs of part-time unemployment benefits: government, employers or employees?
Also read: The disadvantages of flexible working? Employers hardly think about that
Competitive Advantage
The stricter flex rules will now be less painful for employers due to the enormous demand for staff. Due to staff shortages, many organizations are already more motivated to retain employees with a permanent contract.
Telecom provider VodafoneZiggo decided a few years ago to use fewer flex workers. Also departments that usually have a lot of temporary workers are now hiring people directly. That offers a competitive advantage, says personnel director Thomas Mulder. “In the current economy it works like this: if you have the people, you have the market.”
The telecom provider’s customer service provider, 2,300 full-time jobs, now employs people directly at the company. Temporary workers are only hired for temporary projects. VodafoneZiggo hopes to retain staff by offering people permanent employment more quickly. Anyone employed may participate in courses and training. “That way you keep people relevant to the company, and you prepare them for other positions.”
The quality of the work also improves with permanent employees, says Mulder. “If people can develop and gain experience, they are better able to help customers. The average talk time is shorter. Problems are solved faster. And less often a technician is sent to a customer. Even if it is only one less technician per day, that saves a lot.”