The First Part-TIME Economy in the World
Does it Work?
rapidly rising unemployment - 10-15,000 people joined the ranks of the unemployed
everymonth in 1981 and 1982 - there was considerable support for job-sharing. Between
1979 and 1983 the percentage of Dutch workers in favour of shorter working hours, without
pay compensation, rose from 27.9 per cent in 1979 to 35.5 in 1981 and 37.6 in 1983. After
the campaign of 1983-84, possibly as a result of the low impact on employment and the
experience of increased work pressure, support dropped to 25 per cent in 1985. A stable 40
per cent was against shorter working hours all along (Visser 1989). The opponents were
overwhelmingly lower-paid workers and male heads of family (breadwinners). But they
were the card-carrying members of the trade unions, especially in industry. Only in firms
where their own jobs were on the line, the unions had the solid support from their members
for a further reduction of working time without pay.
To understand this we must consider that the German method of labour hoarding through a
temporary shift to shorter working hours (‘Kurzarbeit’) in case of a demand crisis, partly
financed with the help of unemployment funds, is not much used in the Netherlands (Den
Broeder 1997). Indeed, there was a simple reason why the centre-right government (1982-
89) supported the union demand for shorter working hours and job-sharing in 1982 and
1983, against the initial opposition of employers. The government needed every bit of help
to stem the rise in unemployment and the mounting claims on unemployment insurance and
public assistance funds (the latter were rapidly expanding due to the claims of young first-
time job seekers who remained unemployed). For the same desperate reason the government
began to unfold plans to create 25-32 hours jobs for young entrants and for some time these
were the only jobs available for young recruits in the public sector. A similar scheme failed
in metal engineering, since no youth could be found on these terms. Lowering the financial
burden of the public sector and the social security system was one of the main objectives of
government policy and formed a major part of the strategy of private sector recovery (Visser
and Hemerijck 1997).
In 1984-85, when the economy moved out of the recession, the unions did gear up for
another round of working-time reduction in an attempt to create new jobs. But employers
declared any general move to less than 38 hours ‘off limits’. They were able to uphold their
veto till 1993. Between 1986 and 1993 working hours of full-time workers were more or
less unchanged; only ten per cent of all full-time workers had gained a 36 hours working
week by 1993 (mainly in sectors or firms in which major restructuring and job reduction
processes took place). After 1986 Dutch trade unions were unable to maintain their united
front in favour of working hours reduction. Some unions wanted only early retirement;
public sector unions wanted higher wages; the unions of white-collar employees and senior
staff resisted further working time reduction, since their members were unable to
compensate increased work pressure and reduced pay through extra overtime payments (as a
rule, paid overtime applies only to manual workers and salaried employees up to a limit).
The international economic upswing between 1988 and 1991 took away the solidaristic
motive for job-sharing that had convinced many members in 1983. Registered
unemployment fell below six per cent in 1990, though long-term and hidden unemployment
remained at a high level and more people than ever were dependent on benefits (Visser and
Hemerijck 1997). By the end of 1992, the international economic recession began to take its
toll on employment, especially in manufacturing, which is very dependent on exports to
Germany and the rest of the world. A number of major firms, like electronics producer
Philips, aircraft manufacturer Fokker, or Daf Trucks, were soon in deep trouble (Fokker and
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