The unemployment benefit systems were established at quite different times in the various European countries. In the new Member States, these systems are a fairly recent phenomenon. In some countries, the role of employees and employers in the system has remained of major importance, while in others
In April 1999, the Dutch social partners reached agreement within the Labour Foundation on a framework for the further individualisation of terms of employment. Whilst the essential lines of collective agreements will be retained under the Foundation's recommendations, certain conditions of
Filing for a company's bankruptcy or petitioning for the suspension of payments usually spells trouble for its workers, but a Dutch case at the beginning of June 1999 suggests that it can also provide an effective way for employees and their representatives to bring pressure to bear on their
The 1999 Dutch collective bargaining round has seen moves by employers in sectors like construction, healthcare and banking towards replacing their relatively detailed sector-level collective agreements with either a framework agreement or a series of company agreements. By contrast, trade unions
At the end of April 1999, local government workers across a number of Dutch municipalities launched a series of protests in support of their claims in the bargaining round covering some 180,000 municipal workers (NL9904138N [1]). On 27 April, public transport workers went out on a 24-hour strike in
On 19 May 1999, to the surprise of many, the second-term "purple coalition" government, comprising the Labour Party (PvdA), the Liberal Party (VVD) and the Liberal Democrats (D66), disbanded. D66 withdrew because it did not achieve the two-thirds majority required in the First Chamber of parliament
During 1999, efforts continue to "normalise" industrial relations in the Dutch civil service, with the goal of eliminating remaining discrepancies with the market sector wherever possible. However, tough collective bargaining and court cases brought against the government by works councils clearly
Collective bargaining in 1999 for various groups of Dutch civil servants has been fraught with difficulties. By April, an agreement reached for 118,000 government officials marked the only progress, with deadlock in talks for local government officers, university employees and employees in the
Negotiations are not running smoothly in some sectors during the Netherlands' 1999 bargaining round. One of the trade unions representing banking workers angered the other unions in the sector by putting the employers' final bid to its members in March 1999. Meanwhile, negotiations in the
The central works council of the Dutch Employment Service has withdrawn its support from management. The move was taken in March 1999, against the backdrop of an impending reorganisation following a string of earlier reorganisations.
The number of occupationally disabled employees in the Netherlands remains significantly higher than in any other European country, with figures still on the rise in 1998. However, government proposals advanced in January 1999 containing seemingly minor amendments to the Occupational Disability