Employers not happy with Dutch cabinet performance so far

Employers in the Netherlands are not happy with the current minority cabinet, giving Rob Jetten’s administration 4.6 out of 10 in a survey by Ipsos I&O on behalf of the Financieele Dagblad.

In particular, the FD said, employers think the government is showing too little ambition and they criticise the number of rules and regulations surrounding doing business, as well as high taxes.

The government was sworn in at the end of February with a promise of boosting the business climate and billion euro investments in housing and tackling the nitrogen crisis.

Some 73% of business owners in the poll said they were not happy about the way the cabinet is working, compared with 70% of all voters. This, the paper said, is a worse performance than the previous government and the final Mark Rutte-led administration after four months.

“Business owners need stable policy and have not had that for the past few years,” small business association MKB-Nederland said. “The current cabinet started out with good plans … but so far entrepreneurs have not seen much of it.”

Two-thirds, however, back the government’s plan to cut disability benefits for people earning more than €4,600 a month and 64% support cuts to unemployment benefits. They do not back the idea of putting up the state pension age.

The cabinet wanted to raise the state pension age (AOW) faster, halve unemployment benefit (WW) from two years to one and cut disability payments (WIA) – savings of €6.5 billion in all.

It shelved the plans last month after the unions threatened to strike, but said the €6.5 billion still had to be found.

That was not enough for the three union federations – FNV, CNV and VCP – which walked out of negotiations on May 28 and said they will not return until the cuts are off the table for good. They are planning a nationwide public transport strike during rush hour on June 24.