The AWVN employers’ organisation is recommending that freelancers should be required by law to take out insurance to cover them if they become too ill to work.

The organisation said interviews with Trouw and the FD that everyone who works should have sick pay insurance, making them the first employer group in the Netherlands to take such a stand.

The plan will be presented to the federation’s membership at their annual conference on Monday. Unions have previously called for insurance to be made compulsory for the self-employed.

AWVN director Harry van de Kraats told Trouw that the group of working people without insurance is continuing to grow. ‘The time bomb is ticking,’ he said. ‘Is that what we want in the Netherlands?’

Some 80% of the self employed in the Netherlands do not have invalidity insurance and cost is the most often cited reason.

If everyone who worked as a freelancer was required to have insurance, premiums would come down, Van de Kraats said. ‘And of course, it will lead to natural selection. Freelancers who earn too little to really call themselves entrepreneurs will drop off. Even the lower premium will be too much for them.’

Sick pay

At the same time, the AWVN, which claims to be the biggest company organisation in the Netherlands, says that companies should only be required by law to pay one year sick pay to staff who become too ill to work. The current legal requirement is two years.

Van de Kraats told the FD that he also believes it should be easier for the self-employed to build up a pension, by partially opening up pension funds to outsiders.

In addition, the AWBN director believes that companies should do more to encourage unionisation among workers. ‘I really believe in the idea of a counter-prevailing power,’ he said. ‘It is in the interest of companies to have a critical union as a partner is discussions, and to prevent support for nationally-agreed pay deals being reduced.’

CBS figures show the Dutch trade unions have lost 200,000 members since 2012.