Tuesday 20 August 2019

Discrimination means no council contract

Discrimination means no council contract

Amsterdam officials are investigating if they can legally exclude companies that discriminate against workers from council contracts and will press ahead with using ‘mystery guests’ to check, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Friday. The move, which is part of a plan which will be sent to the councillors this week, is meant to promote diversity and tackle discrimination in the jobs market which, social affairs alderman Rutger Groot Wassink told the FD is ‘rife and hard to eradicate’. Young people... More >

Women not willing to travel far to work

Women not willing to travel far to work

Women are less willing than men to travel long distances to work and this may be restricting their career opportunities, according to research using figures gleaned from the state jobs agency UWV. The research, by ABN Amro economists, shows that women are willing to travel an average of no more than 28 kilometres to work, but men will commute up to 49 kilometres. This means that women are looking in an area a third the size of men for a... More >

Pay rises near 3% in May

Pay rises near 3% in May

Pay rises agreed in collective bargaining with unions averaged just under 3% last month, the highest level since the financial crisis hit 10 years ago, according to employers organisation AWVN. In total, 26 pay deals (CAOs) were sealed last month, giving workers an average pay increase of 2.96%, the AWVN said. Earlier, the national statistics agency CBS said the average pay rise over the first three months of the year was 2.2%, prompting the organisation’s chief economist to ask why... More >

Ministries spend €1.4bn on external staff

Ministries spend €1.4bn on external staff

Dutch government ministries spent €1.4bn last year hiring external personnel, a rise of over 60% on 2011, the AD said on Wednesday. Six of the 12 ministries are breaking guidelines which say external hires should not account for more than 10% of personnel costs and the education and economic affairs ministries are spending 20% of their staffing budgets on outsiders. The education ministry says in its annual report the need for outsiders is ‘so great that a speedy reduction towards... More >

Ministers launch new grants for training

Ministers launch new grants for training

The government is planning to scrap the tax break on the cost of work-related training courses and replace them with grants of up to €2,000 a year to allow people to further develop their career prospects. The social affairs and education ministry hope up to 200,000 people a year will take advantage of the new grant system. People will be able to use the cash to partly fund diplomas which will boost their skills or make them more employable. The... More >

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