The state is under no obligation to give maternity pay to women who work as free-lancers or run their own one-woman companies, a court in The Hague ruled on Wednesday.

The self-employed did get maternity pay until 2004, when sick pay rules were changed. The FNV union brought the case.
Last year, MPs voted in favour of developing measures to pay self-employed women maternity pay. ‘This would have been a good boost to the campaign to get the cabinet to honour that wish,’ said FNV chairwoman Agnes Jongerius.