The call for a longer working week has become increasingly loud during early 1998, not only within Dutch employers' circles but among some employee organisations as well. The Dutch Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses wishes to return to a 40-hour working week, while the Association for Higher-grade Personnel is even arguing for a 42-hour working week. In reaction to this, the Christian Trade Union Federation has stated that increased workloads - and hence the call for a longer working week - is merely the result of implementing a shorter working week without sufficiently expanding the workforce to compensate for it.
In the spring of 1998, the call to lengthen the working week has become more and more vocal in the Netherlands. At the end of 1997, the industrial workers' union affiliated to the Dutch Trade Union Federation (Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging, FNV) refrained from demanding another reduction in the working week in its forthcoming bargaining claims. In addition, the chemical company Akzo Nobel indicated that a shortage of specialist staff had forced it to consider expanding the working week to 40 or more hours. At present, this view is supported by both the Association for Higher-grade Personnel (Vereniging voor Hoger Personeel, VHP) and the Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (Midden en Klein Bedrijf, MKB).
The results of a questionnaire survey have shown that a majority of VHP members prefer a 42-hour working week, while only one-third of its members are unconditionally opposed to this. These results will be included in VHP's demands in forthcoming collective bargaining rounds. The idea is that the union's members, who currently work - for example - a 38-hour week, would get paid for a 42-hour week. On an annual basis (52 weeks), this would amount to 208 hours' extra pay which could be used - according to the choice of the employee - to improve pension entitlements or to take a sabbatical or training leave. In addition to lengthening the paid working week, VHP is also demanding salary bonuses for management staff and wants to continue shortening total working hours.
MKB's standpoint on this issue was prompted not by heavy workloads, but by expected strains in the labour market, and the consequent pressure for pay increases. It is expected that there will be 100,000 hard-to-fill vacancies during the course of 1998. To deal with this, MKB is arguing for the introduction of foreign workers from countries such as Germany where unemployment is high. Furthermore, while not wishing to ignore the 1.5 million Dutch people on the margins of the labour market, MKB members will continue to focus on lengthening the paid working week for their own employees. This lengthening would translate into a pay rise of over 5%, on top of the normal pay increase which is expected to be around 3%.
MKB's proposals have been sharply criticised by the Christian Trade Union Federation (Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond, CNV). The union fears that these proposals would lead to irresponsible pay rises which would then pose a threat to the economic success of the Netherlands. They argue that increased workloads are the consequence of implementing a shorter working week without sufficiently expanding the workforce. Increased workloads have also been caused by inefficient organisation by employers, who have withdrawn from collective agreements on training. This reaction by the CNV has been echoed by both the Minister of Social Affairs and the analysts of the Central Bureau of Statistics (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, CBS), who have put matters in perspective. At present, there are still far more unemployed people than available jobs on the Dutch labour market.