As US companies scramble to lure workers back to their offices, the Dutch parliament has passed legislation to make working from home legal. This made the Netherlands one of the first countries to legislate this flexibility.
Under current Dutch law, employers can refuse an employee’s request to work from home without giving reasons. The new legislation forces employers to consider such requests and provide reasons if they are denied.
Across the United States, companies are struggling to get white-collar workers back to their offices. Some try to lure workers back with office perks, such as more sofas or larger coffee shops. Others take a tougher stance. Elon Musk recently told Tesla and SpaceX employees that they must spend at least 40 hours a week in the office.
In an April survey of more than 32,000 American workers conducted by the research institute ADP, two-thirds of respondents said they would look for a new job if they had to return to the office full time.
Working from home was popular in the Netherlands even before the pandemic. According to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office, 14 percent of Dutch working remotely worked in 2018, the highest percentage in the European Union.
The country was ranked number one in a 2019 survey by British company Plusnet, which ranked the best European countries for so-called digital nomads based on factors such as internet quality, cost of living and the amount of co-working spaces.
This week’s bill is an amendment to the 2015 Flexible Work Act, which allowed workers to request changes to working hours, work schedule and workplace.
Law “important step‘I mean for the staff,’ he said Sina Matag, a representative of the GroenLinks party and one of the law’s co-authors. “It allows them to find a better work-life balance and reduce the time they spend on the move“.
Stephen Van WeinbergThe D66 party member and co-author of the bill said:This is also a good law for employers. Because a happy employee means a happy employer.“
According to some Dutch companies, allowing remote work increases productivity and employee satisfaction.
ING Groep, the Dutch multinational bank, said it will allow employees in the Netherlands to work from home 50 per cent of the time, except for those who work in branches. The bank has approximately 15,000 employees in the Netherlands and 57,000 worldwide.
“We combine the advantages of an office work with the advantages of working at homeAn ING spokesperson said, Aram Godsmitin addition to that”The well-being of our colleagues is our top priority“.
A spokesperson for Amsterdam-based brewing giant Heineken said its current hybrid model allows employees in the Netherlands to work from home two days a week. The spokesman declined to comment on whether the company would support Dutch employees who work from home more than two days a week if requested.
The legislation was praised by the Dutch Trade Union Confederation, which has 900,000 members from various professions.
“The Covid crisis has shown that teleworking can work and that employees are happier and more productive when they alternate between working from home and the office. As a trade union, we are urging companies to enter into a collective agreement on teleworking”
– Tell Jose Cagerthe official spokesman for the union.
During the pandemic, the Dutch government has helped businesses by offering rebates and tax credits to compensate workers for the additional costs of setting up home offices.
The majority of Dutch workers want flexible work to become permanent. According to a recent survey of 5,300 Dutch workers in the financial, commercial and government sectors, 70 percent would like to switch between working at home and the office. Only 10 percent wanted to return to full-time office work, and 20 percent said they only wanted to work from home.
Other European countries have introduced similar labor protection laws in recent years, but none have specifically stated that workers have the right to work from home.
Legislation in Spain offers some protections for workers who want to work from home and prohibits companies from favoring office workers over remote workers based solely on where they work. In Portugal, a law passed last year prohibits employers from contacting workers outside working hours.
In the US and UK, there is no such protection, and employees must negotiate with their employers if they wish to work from home. (The Wall Street Journal)
