Several companies operating in the financial sector are planning to improve the position of freelancers and people on flexible contracts, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Tuesday.

Bank ING and insurance groups Achmea, Nationale Nederland, ASR and VGZ are poised to sign a code of conduct with the unions in which they agree to treat flexible workers in a similar way to regular staff, the paper said.

In total the deal will cover some 10,000 self employed and workers on flexible contracts.

The code will form the basis of pay negotiations in the coming three years. It includes a commitment to equal pay and to access to invalidity benefits and corporate pension schemes. In addition, the code paves the way for changes to the current competition clauses which stop freelancers working for more than one company in the same sector.

‘As an insurance company, we understand the risks attached to flexible labour,’ Achmea’s HR director Elly Ploumen told the paper. ‘We are trying to find another way of reducing the risks, in conversation with the sector itself.’

Last month, freelance architects became the first self-employed group in the country to have a pay deal governing how much they should earn.

When the agreement comes into effect, freelance architects who work for another bureau must be paid 150% of the gross salary of someone doing a similar job internally. The negotiators opted for 150% to cover freelance costs, such as healthcare, pensions and insurance.

The aim of the deal is to stop unfair competition between employees and freelancers, the Dutch architect office association said.

Experts expect other professional sectors, such as journalism, to make similar moves in the near future. The cabinet is also planning to bring in a minimum tariff of €16 for freelancers at the bottom end of the market.