The vast majority of workers in the Netherlands are employed on a permanent basis and wish to keep it that way. Collective agreements, social dialogue, and pension schemes are important achievements of our Rhineland model. The CDA wants to preserve that. At the same time, self-employment has become increasingly popular and it can be important to gain control over ones own balance between work and private life, such as caregiving or volunteer work.
The self-employed have gained their own position in the labor market, without clear legislation. Therefore, CDA, VVD, D66, and SGP are presenting the draft explanatory memorandum for an initiative bill today. The parties want to solve the problem from the political center. The bill should provide clarity about the position of the self-employed, establish the balance between their freedoms and responsibilities, and create a level playing field with people with an employment contract. This draft proposal is based on the Belgian model.
More space for self-employed workers comes with greater responsibility. With this bill, we bring a clearer position for the self-employed in the labor market in balance with the majority of people who want to work for a company. This is urgently needed to combat pseudo self-employment and improve the position of the self-employed with more protection.
Inge van Dijk
The Draft Bill
The draft bill stipulates that the question of whether someone can work independently for a self-employed client must be answered based on three tests. A separate committee will be established to help assess the framework:
- Self-Employed Test: Is someone truly self-employed? This involves examining whether someone behaves externally as self-employed: do they have multiple assignments? Do they invest in their own business resources?
- Work Relationship Test: Are there obstacles to working as self-employed? Does someone work voluntarily as self-employed? Do they have a high degree of freedom over the execution of the work and freedom of working time or leave? And is there hierarchical control?
- Sectoral Presumption: Some sectors have a higher risk of pseudo self-employment. Consider preventing labor migrants from working in constructions as self-employed.
This law also anchors the position of the self-employed in the law. Additionally, we expect them to have made provisions against the risk of income loss in case of disability and retirement. The self-employed have the responsibility and freedom to arrange that provision themselves. Space to work as self-employed, legal certainty for clients, and better social protection go hand in hand in this bill. We create a level playing field with people with an employment contract and thus prevent abuse.
Pre-Consultation
The draft bill is going into pre-consultation today. The initiators have jointly completed the draft explanatory memorandum and are now publishing it, with the aim of incorporating all input from the field in further elaboration. The law will then be submitted to the Council of State and subsequently to Parliament.