Unions and employers are opposed to cabinet plans to cut the sick pay entitlement of staff on flexible contracts from two years to three months, the Volkskrant reports on Tuesday.

‘It is right to take measures to reduce absenteeism, but if flexible staff are going to be treated differently to people on permanent contracts, that will increase the difference between the two,’ Aart van der Gaag, head of the staffing agency association ABU told the paper.
Social affairs minister Henk Kamp plans to shake up sick pay laws from January next year. The change will mean only staff on a permanent contract would have the right to two years of sick pay.
The plan was part of the government agreement signed when the outgoing cabinet was put together in 2010 and adopted in the spring austerity talks agreed this year.
The upper house of parliament is due to vote on the plan in October. The Netherlands has around one million workers on temporary or flexible contracts.
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