Crisis measures being planned on jobs

Employers, government ministers and trade unions are working out crisis measures in an effort to avoid mass redundancies, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Thursday, quoting sources in The Hague.

The introduction of compulsory shorter working weeks, a popular measure in the 1980s, is high on the agenda as a way of combating unemployment, the paper says.
At the moment, companies faced with a disaster, such as a fire or flood, can apply to the social affairs ministry for a licence to reduce its workers hours on a temporary basis. Staff must be paid unemployment benefit (70% of salary) for the scrapped hours.
The paper says social affairs minister Piet Hein Donner would have to amend existing rules to cover the financial crisis. But sources told the FD that an exception could be made, given the seriousness of the economic situation.
Lay-offs
The NRC, which says economic affairs minister Maria van der Hoeven is also involved in the talks, claims that 15 firms have already applied for a short-term work licence.
A report by accountants group KPMG earlier this week showed that one in five Dutch firms are preparing to cut costs because of the financial crisis, with job losses heading the list of options.
On Monday night, prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende used the traditional employers banquet to call on banks to keep pumping money around. ‘You know me as a careful man. But in this situation, I say: money has to keep rolling,’ the pm said.