2024-01-12 14:40:00
The leave system has become far too complicated. It has been expanded time and time again with new rules for slightly different situations, so that there are now six types of leave for the period around having a child alone. Those for whom this leave is intended often cannot see the forest for the trees and sometimes do not even apply for it. And employers also don’t know where they stand.
This must change, says the Social-Economic Council (Ser) in an advice to the new cabinet. ‘At a time of unprecedented labor market shortages,’ the council writes, ‘it is important that as many people as possible who want to work can also work.’ More and more people have to combine work and care during their working lives, and this must therefore be made possible. ‘Leave is one of the means to do that.’
Then it must be simpler. It is easy to understand why each of the existing rules was introduced, but all in all a ‘patchwork of conditions, rights and obligations’ has emerged. One leave can be requested in advance, the other only afterwards, as seen by the Ser, for example. And for one the employer must request an advance, for the other the benefit is settled afterwards. One overarching Social Leave Act should ‘streamline’ all these arrangements, according to the Ser.
Low income earners take less leave
These extensions of leave schemes were partly due to actions by the trade unions, the FNV responds. “This allows young parents to spend more time with their newborn child and encourages a more equal division of work and care tasks between men and women,” says FNV director Bas van Weegberg, who co-wrote the Ser advice. But indeed, “in practice it appears that many employees do not find the leave system simple. And low incomes appear to take much less leave than higher incomes.”
The Ser also sees the problem of people with low wages. Schemes that guarantee 70 percent of the salary are in fact not feasible for them: they then have too little left and therefore often do not take leave. If leave is taken, it is usually mothers who do so, because they have a smaller job; the family will then earn less money. This also leads to an unequal distribution of care tasks. According to the Ser, a floor in the daily wage can ensure that leave is also accessible to this group.
In any case, the costs of all that leave should be better distributed, says the Ser. Employees now contribute (by handing in a salary) and it is also a problem for employers. All arrangements regarding birth and parenthood cost them 805 million euros per year. According to Ser, the government should take on a larger share of these costs.
Major social benefits
The importance of good leave arrangements transcends that of employers and employees, as the Ser substantiates this part of his advice, there is also a general interest at stake. Not only can regulations positively influence the division of tasks between men and women, they also make informal care possible. At least two million people already spend at least eight hours a week providing informal care, and that number will only grow. The current distribution of leave costs ‘is not in proportion to its major social benefits’, says the Ser.
Not only the trade unions, but also employers see ‘important advantages’ in the advice. VNO-NCW and MKB-Nederland expect ‘less administrative burdens’ and ‘more balanced financing’ if the advice is followed. The Ser also wants good consultation between employer and employee to become a condition for leave. This gives employers ‘more control’, and these two organizations are also happy with that.
Also read:
How paternity leave can create more equality at home and in the labor market
Paternity leave causes young children to abandon traditional gender roles, researchers from the University of Barcelona have discovered. This can ensure more equality at home and in the workplace.
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