Opposition MPs are urging social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher to do more to combat discrimination on the jobs market, saying he has not done enough so far to improve equal opportunities.

‘The minister has good intentions but few deeds,’ Socialist MP Sadet Karabulut is quoted as saying by broadcaster RTL News. Christian Democrat, D66, ChristenUnie and GroenLinks parliamentarians are also calling for change.

For example, little has come of Asscher’s pledge to stop companies which discriminate from taking part in government tenders, the MPs say. They also want the social affairs minister to press ahead with trials of anonymous job applications.

Surnames

‘It is time for action. We have to get rid of the idea that we can guess people’s capacities on the basis of their surname,’ Labour MP Roos Vermeij is quoted as saying by website Nu.nl.

MPs are due to debate last summer’s SCP report on discrimination against ethnic minority youths in The Hague with the minister later on Thursday.

Fake job applications sent to employers in The Hague showed that people with a ‘white’ Dutch name are almost twice as likely to be invited for an interview as someone with a Moroccan-sounding name.

The government’s socio-cultural think-tank SCP sent 504 job applications to 176 different vacancies using various Dutch, Moroccan and Hindustani names.

In 34% of cases, the applicants with the Dutch names were invited for an interview, compared with 23% of those with a Hindustani name and 19% of those with a Moroccan name.