General workers union FNV Bondgenoten is calling for medical information held by a private health and safety firm to be destroyed, the Nos website reports on Monday.

Many Dutch firms rely on private companies to monitor health and safety, follow up on sick workers and help get them back to work.
But according to a report by tv current affairs show Zembla in March confidential medical information is being given to the largest of these firms – VerzuimReductie – and call centre staff are using this to question sick workers about why they are off work.
By law, only company doctors can ask about the reason for sick leave.
VerzuimReductie has 100,000 workers under its wing from some of the Netherlands’ biggest companies. It’s slogan is ‘Absenteeism leaves holes. We get workers back to work faster’.
Following the Zembla report, FNV Bondgenoten opened a help line for its members for four weeks, during which 1,429 people working in sectors such as retail, home care and transport responded.
Around 78% of them are negative about VerzuimReductie’s working methods and 72% felt under pressure to return to work as quickly as possible. Just under 50% said their medical information was handed to VerzuimReductie by their employer.
FNV Bondgenoten is now calling for all the files made by VerzuimReductie to be destroyed, because the information in them was obtained illegally.