In November 2004, the Dutch telecommunications group, KPN , announced 700 compulsory redundancies in its fixed-line telephone services division, adding to 1,550 job losses made earlier in the year in the wake of restructuring. Concerns have been raised by the works council and trade unions.
On 1 May 2004, a new law came into force prohibiting discrimination in the labour market on the grounds of age (NL0308103T [1]). [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/thematic-feature-implementation-of-the-eu-framework-equal-treatment-directive-10
In May 2004, the Dutch Minister of Social Affairs proposed changes to the statutory rules on selection for redundancy, with less emphasis on the 'last in, first out' seniority-based principle and a greater focus on distributing the redundancies between employees of different ages. The social
Parliamentary elections held in January 2003 (NL0302101N [1]) resulted in gains for the governing Christian Democratic Appeal (Christen Democratisch Appel, CDA) party and the opposition social democratic Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid, PvdA). The CDA gained 44 seats in the lower house of
In April 2004, the members of the management board of KLM waived bonuses offered to them in the run-up to the Dutch airline's merger with Air France, under pressure from trade unions and the government. During the current agreed national wage freeze, increases in senior management remuneration are
In November 2003, the Dutch Minister of Social Affairs and Emancipation Policy, Aart Jan de Geus, stated that he was keen to drop the current specific government policy portfolio for gender equality. Instead, gender issues should be mainstreamed into other policy areas. The Minister asserted that
The EU Directive establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation (Directive 2000/78/EC [1]) was adopted in November 2000 (EU0102295F [2]). The Directive seeks to lay down a general framework for combating discrimination, as regards employment and occupation, on the
The employers’ organisation for the Dutch agriculture and horticulture sector, LTO Nederland, is to make a quarter of its staff redundant, it was announced in summer 2003. The factors behind the move include a continuing decline in the number of farmers and the fact that fewer of them are joining
In July 2003, a trade union affiliated to the Dutch Christian Trade Union Federation (CNV) negotiated extra benefits for its own members in a redundancy agreement with the Getronics IT company. A similar deal was reached in 2002 by an affiliate of the Dutch Trade Union Federation (FNV) at Ballast
At the end of 2002, three-quarters of Dutch employees were covered by collective agreements containing childcare arrangements. However, in 2003, in anticipation of new childcare provision legislation due to come into force in 2005, employers are cutting back the proportion of childcare costs that