Jump to main content
IndustriALL logotype
Article placeholder image

CAL Destroying Permanent Jobs and Increasing Insecurity in Netherlands and Spain

2 April, 2012

There is increasingly wide recognition that contract and agency work is contributing to the destruction of permanent employment and to high levels of job insecurity.

On 6th March unemployment figures were released in the Netherlands which revealed that only 2,000 people signed a permanent contract in 2011, as opposed to 83,000 in 2010. At the same time, according to the UWV the Dutch office for unemployment insurance, the use of fixed-term contracts has increased from 227,000 in 2010 to 368,000 in 2011, while the number of those classified as self-employed has doubled to 750,000 in 2011. 

Says Marcel Nuyten, Union Director for Temporary Workers at FNV Bondgenoten: “Permanent contracts are abolished in the Netherlands. That’s one of the results of the enormous flexibility and flex contracts in the Netherlands. We are the flex champions of the EU and we have the worst growth figures of the Northern European countries. Flexibility means total lack of security. That’s what we see in the Netherlands”. More information about FNV Bondgenoten’s campaign against CAL is available here.

A recent OECD document also highlighted how the use of CAL is contributing to employment insecurity in Spain. According to ‘OECD Economic Outlook 2011 – How does Spain compare?’ since late 2007 almost 9 in 10 jobs lost in Spain were temporary jobs. Temporary employment in Spain has reduced by a third, compared with a 3% reduction in permanent employment. The OECD document attributes this to the fact that it is easier for employers to dismiss temporary workers than permanent workers.