The First Part-TIME Economy in the World
Does it Work?
employment. Given the low threshold of hours and the rather encompassing regime of social
security (every part-time job is covered), there is no reason to believe that informal labour
other than in ‘do-it-yourself’ and neighbour- and family help (including care for children
and elderly people) is very widespread in the Netherlands. In fact the high degree of
flexibility tends to compress the need and the market for informal employment (Delsen
1988). All told, the various estimates of the size of atypical employment or ‘flex work’ do
not suggest that external numerical flexibility is particularly widespread in the Netherlands,
compared with its European neighbours (Delsen 1995; OECD 1996, Table 1.6). But there is
no doubt that the phenomenon is on the rise.
4.1 Temp work
Temp work (in Dutch: uitzendwerk) involved in 1996 around three per cent of all
employees in employment, or one-quarter of all people employed under atypical or
contingent employment contracts. The typical temp job is full-time, and concerns low- or
semi-skilled work. Temp work is used both in agriculture and industries in case of seasonal
work or uncertain demand, and in commercial services in case of temporary activities. This
explains why there are an almost equal number of men and women in temp jobs. Typically,
the temp worker is young, has no children; there is in fact a high proportion of two-earning
(starting) households involved in this kind of jobs. Temp work has expanded rapidly after a
contraction during the 1992-94 recession. In 1996 there were the Ministry counted 214,400
temp contracts, a rise of 100,000 compared to 1992. There is a clear pro-cyclical pattern.
Temp workers are the first to loose their jobs (by not being recalled); in the upswing product
demand is first met with extra effort of existing employees as hoarding is reduced, followed
by the hiring of additional temp workers if future demand remains uncertain. If growth
continues, temp work tends to stabilise as some temp workers may be offered regular jobs.
Temp agencies specialise in buffering fluctuations, matching product demand changes and
labour supply, for instance in the case of seasonal fluctuation, but they are also used by
employers to avoid dismissal protection requirements and as a screening device. Over the
past fifteen years, the volume of flexible work (measured in labour years) increased from
1,5 per cent of total employment in the 1970s to 2,5 per cent around 1990 and 3.5 per cent
in 1996. Temp work is more widespread in the Netherlands than elsewhere in Europe.
Gradually, the market for temp work has been liberalised. Until 1965 all private
employment agencies were prohibited, but in that year they were allowed in specific
occupations and industries, if licensed by the authorities. Licensing terms have gradually
been eased and from January 1999 no further license is needed. Some of the larger temp
agencies operate now on an international scale and are clearly moving ‘up market’ by
specialising in ‘human resource management’, training and employability of skilled workers
(for instance IT specialists and managers, or artists). They are also active in the market for
subsidised or additional employment and have made ‘contracts’ with local governments in
the Netherlands and Germany regarding the placement of the long-term unemployed,
usually on the base of lump sum subsidies.
Trade unions have initially tried to ban temp agencies but in the 1980s they became partners
in a ‘non-profit’ temp work agency that co-operated with the official public placement
office. Gradually unions have come to terms with temp agencies as they accepted a limited
need for temp work in particular (seasonal) industries or as replacement for workers on
sickness leave. In 1993 they signed a covenant with the aforementioned non-profit agency
and two years later the first collective agreement with General Association of Temp
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