News item | 2023-04-20 | 09:42
The internet consultation on the bill introducing the obligation to report occupational accidents by lending agencies started on 20 April 2023. Anyone can comment on the bill. The internet consultation will run until 25 May 2023.
Minister Van Gennip’s bill introducing the duty to report industrial accidents and the obligation to verify obligations for lenders aims to improve safety in the workplace for temporary workers (loaned employees). New in the law is that the temporary employment agency must also report serious and fatal industrial accidents of its loaned employees to the Dutch Labor Inspectorate. In addition, the temporary employment agency is obliged to check after an industrial accident whether sufficient measures have been taken so that the employee can return to work safely. The bill stems from the recommendations of the Booster Team for the Protection of Labor Migrants.
More central role for employment agencies
Temporary employment agencies play a central role in employing migrant workers, but often fall short in their care for the employee. The hirer, the company that hires someone, bears the greatest responsibility for the safety and health of the temporary worker. After all, this works for the hirer. However, it is also important that the temporary employment agency demonstrates good employment practices by actively checking whether the temporary worker can work in a healthy and safe manner.
One in five registered victims of an occupational accident is a loaned employee or self-employed person. Hirers do not comply well enough with the obligation to report occupational accidents and, according to the Dutch Labor Inspectorate, there is under-reporting.
The obligation to report serious and fatal industrial accidents to the Dutch Labor Inspectorate is expanded in this proposal. The obligation for the hirer to report the accident to the Dutch Labor Inspectorate has already been laid down in the Working Conditions Act. The hirer must now also report the occupational accident to the employment agency and also to all other employment agencies that have a temporary worker working at the location of the accident. Also new in the law is that the employment agency must report serious and fatal industrial accidents of its loaned employees to the Dutch Labor Inspectorate. In practice, this will mean that the same serious industrial accident is reported twice to the Labor Inspectorate (double reporting).
The temporary employment agency is also obliged to check after the accident whether sufficient measures have been taken so that these or other employees of that temporary employment agency can safely return to work at the workplace in question. This is called verifying.
The starting point is that bona fide employers retain the scope to do business, that employers who push the boundaries of the regulations are stopped and that dishonest employers are thwarted.
The internet consultation can be found at internetconsultatie.nl and runs through (May 25, 2023)