Public affairs

I am optimistic. I think - and above all, I hope - that it will not be too bad. Working with the self-employed can and should be just fine. But I see the concerns growing more and more in the run-up to Jan. 1, 2025. So my appeal to clients is: keep your cool, stay calm and don't force people into salaried employment en masse (in short order). Don't use the lifting of the moratorium as an excuse to panic. Look at what can be done, arrange a job description neatly and in such a way that you can just keep working with self-employed people. Stick to the agreements you make with each other. I especially hope that we can keep that calm.

Yes, absolutely. There is a huge lack of innovation, and that is precisely what is desperately needed. We have to fundamentally rethink the position of the self-employed and our labor market as a whole. We have to admit that flex has gone too far in some places. But fixed is also very much fixed, and we need to discuss that too. So about flex and permanent. The outline agreement mentions two laws: the WTTA and the VBAR. The VVD supports the WTTA. The outline agreement does state that 'the cabinet is free to continue with the VBAR'. That is different from going ahead and agreeing to it blindly. I, as the VVD, am highly critical of that VBAR. And not only the VVD, but many industry associations, zzp organizations and scientists with me. That is why I also asked the cabinet: consider splitting the law, then you can already start working on the legal presumption based on an hourly rate for the basis of the labor market. And compulsory disability insurance is just enormously complicated. As the VVD, we think the opt-out is very important. Without that opt-out, a compulsory regulation cannot come about as far as we are concerned. But we have to look beyond that. It is time for a modern approach that really supports the self-employed, without forcing them into a straitjacket.

The cabinet finally began to move toward a soft landing, and the House supported it. I was really happy about that, though.

The concerns of self-employed people I receive daily in my mailbox. That touches me very much. People who work hard and are now losing assignments because organizations no longer dare to take them on. That does strike me as a low point.

A fundamental discussion about how we deal with the self-employed. In recent years, politicians have not sufficiently succeeded in answering the question of how we want to deal with the self-employed in the labor market. We have left that question unanswered. We need to have a serious conversation about a contract-independent system. That is a nice dot on the horizon and an important goal for me. And finally, I look forward specifically to January 21. Then we as VVD will organize a townhall session on the future of the self-employed, together with our political leader Dilan Yeşilgöz. I think it would be great to talk to a large group of self-employed people about how they envision their future.

*This interview is part of a series, in which in recent weeks the Public Affairs team has interviewed several experts closely involved in issues surrounding the self-employed and the labor market. The series consists of six interviews, which will be published in the coming weeks.

I deliberately named my chair "Sustainable Employability of Entrepreneurs. When I ask an entrepreneur "what does sustainable employability mean to you?", the entrepreneur starts talking about what he or she is doing for the employees or the company. Entrepreneurs are constantly working to keep the business running, who is working for others for their feelings, who is just doing business. The topic is enormously important, we pay far too little attention to it. And only in recent years has the theme really started to land more, but I have also been on the stage for twenty years. More and more the realization is coming: if the entrepreneur does not develop, then neither can the company. There is a direct link between that.

Then, though, the question immediately arises: for what target group exactly are we doing it? There are almost 2.6 million registrations at the Chamber of Commerce. I think many entrepreneurs will think: I'll do that myself. Entrepreneurs are of course stubborn, at least I am myself. Maybe it should not be directly with the government, but more with industry associations. They often know much better what is going on in a particular sector and understand what is needed. And sustainable employability is also quite a complex concept. According to the literature, it consists of three elements: vitality, work capacity and employability. For an employee, it often stops at these three, but a fourth element is added for the entrepreneur: his or her own company. And that company must also remain healthy and develop. That company must also move with the times. Technological developments, legal developments ... An employee does not have that extra element.

That there is stronger representation for the self-employed within the SER. Previously, this group of employed people was not automatically given a place to participate and provide input in writing reports and drafting opinions. This has now really changed.

That by confusing facts and opinions, we can no longer come out together. That's how it feels to me. A lot of stimuli come at us and people tend to grab hold of something and hold on to it. And in fear we mainly hold on to the negative things, but we have to see what we can do. That is part of being an entrepreneur. And you don't solve things through negativity, we solve things through positivity and connection.

We have many challenges that continue into the new year. For example, the tight labor market and enforcement. But we have to pick it up together and have good conversations. We need to have more understanding of each other's situation and be genuinely more interested in the self-employed, for example. Why do people choose to be self-employed? How are we going to fulfill that need for autonomy and flexibility? By asking the right questions, we also start to understand each other better. Therein lies the core, and I hope that in 2025 we will work with that.

*This interview is part of a series, in which in recent weeks the Public Affairs team has interviewed several experts closely involved in issues surrounding the self-employed and the labor market. The series consists of six interviews, which will be published in the coming weeks.

You notice that politicians have to start from scratch again. This is understandable, because the zzp dossier is complicated and there has been a huge changing of the guard in the Lower House. There are a lot of new people on the zzp file. I see that most MPs are now breaking into this file, but that also takes time. A MP like Thierry Aartsen (VVD) has been around longer. He really wants to work for the situation of the self-employed. The BBB is also making itself heard for the self-employed. At the NSC there was a MP on the zzp file with a lot of entrepreneurial experience, but Tjebbe van Oostenbruggen recently became State Secretary. I hope that all MPs also get - and take - enough time to master this dossier. I am a bit skeptical about that. This could have a big impact on the depth of the discussion. Fairly recently we had a good conversation with Minister Van Hijum. He is genuinely interested in the zzp perspective. He is sharp and asks good questions. But I see it as a missed opportunity that the coalition agreement paid so little attention to the labor market and the self-employed. The policy of the previous administration was simply continued and the approach is pretty classic: the permanent job is the norm. That is out of date. Sticking a past solution on a current problem. That's not going to work.

The opinion of the Council of State was heartening for us. Back in the fall of 2023, we came up with a solid response to the Internet consultation. Many of our concerns I read back into this opinion. The section on clarifying the employment relationship is not going to provide clarity and the entrepreneurship of the individual is secondary. At VZN, we advocate for a modern approach that incorporates individual entrepreneurship much more. The growth in the number of freelancers shows that the classic model no longer works. It is time to recognize that we cannot put the genie back in the bottle. We need to move toward a system where all working people have some arrangement for disability, old-age provision and also education. If you as a self-employed person want to take advantage of the entrepreneurial facilities that we have, then you can link it to that, so that you will then actually arrange those other things for yourself. For example, by creating a business buffer from which you hedge your entrepreneurial and social risks. This is how you stimulate sustainable self-employment. That is something from which people and society both benefit. Defining employment and entrepreneurship to the letter, as the minister is now trying to do, is not going to work. Instead, start organizing all the preconditions around it properly. And tackle the issue of social security. Make sure it is no longer merely linked to employment. That is forward-looking.

I expect a lot of hassle in the first few months, especially around enforcement. It's really not going to work to get all those self-employed people back into salaried employment. They don't want it. And I fear that the temp and secondment constructions that are coming up now are going to lead to even higher personnel costs. We wake up on January 1 on a waterbed. The flex signs have been moved here and there but the permanent contract has still not begun to take off, because both many clients and workers no longer want it. Eventually we will have to recognize the need for flexibility and autonomy. That will hopefully open the door to a broader discussion about how we are going to organize the labor market differently. I hope we will have that fundamental discussion together in 2025. How we can really work on a different system with a full role and position of the self-employed in this future-oriented labor market.

*Minister van Hijum (SZW) made a commitment during the Social Affairs and Employment budget debate to "take another good look" at the VBAR. Earlier, Van Hijum had intended to send the bill to the Lower House this year, but indicated that he was still waiting for the Supreme Court to answer preliminary questions in the Uber/FNV case. This has changed between the interview and publication dates.

*This interview is part of a series, in which in recent weeks the Public Affairs team has interviewed several experts closely involved in issues surrounding the self-employed and the labor market. The series consists of six interviews, which will be published in the coming weeks.

The committee debate on labor market policy in October. I did find the level of discussion and the level of questions to be a low point. It really could have been better.

I hope that this year's hopeful signs will continue. Politically, I am somewhat less sure, as the political situation is somewhat shaky after all, and there are tensions within the coalition. I expect the first half of 2025 to be turbulent. The wishes of politicians and the policy of organizations to scale down are going to cause confrontations, because production has to continue and we are facing shortages in the labor market. So it will be a search for a new balance and we will have to compromise somewhere. There are many places in the labor market where the self-employed have become indispensable. All in all, it's going to be very interesting to follow those dynamics.

*This interview is part of a series, in which in recent weeks the Public Affairs team has interviewed several experts closely involved in issues surrounding the self-employed and the labor market. The series consists of six interviews, which will be published in the coming weeks.

The disinformation that is spread. This damages trust in the rules and in the executive agencies.

I hope that we will have a more fundamental discussion about self-employed workers in, for example, partner structures and with specialists such as self-employed surgeons. Those legal (qualification) questions are much more interesting and complex than those about self-employed people in childcare or education. In addition, I would like to see the conversation start in society and in politics about a revision of the social security system and how employed and self-employed people contribute to it. And as an extension of my dissertation, it is still interesting that the focus might not only be on the differences in taxation and social security, but also be shifted to the civil law differences between employees and the self-employed. Of course, one might ask: shouldn't the conversation about these differences actually have been held much earlier, for example, when the enforcement moratorium was first announced?

*This interview is part of a series, in which in recent weeks the Public Affairs team has interviewed several experts closely involved in issues surrounding the self-employed and the labor market. The series consists of six interviews, which will be published in the coming weeks.

The Chamber is right to be critical. The enforcement moratorium was put in place in 2016 because there was no clear legislation, that still hasn't changed. The Supreme Court has further colored the case law with the Deliveroo ruling, but it is really up to the legislature to provide clear legislation. In the Netherlands you have the right to work as an employee, but also the right not to. That deserves a good legal framework.

Sure. At my first debate, MP Senna Maatoug of GroenLinks asked why the VVD, nota bene the party of enforcement, was so against enforcement of the DBA law. My answer was simple: if there is no clear law, you can't enforce it. I am in favor of enforcement, but only if there is a good legal framework. When even the judiciary says "approach it holistically," the answer is often "it depends.

When I was in the Chamber, I thought it was important to stand up for the right to free choice: you should be able to choose to be an entrepreneur. That should be reflected in the VBAR. The Borstlap Commission stated: 'fixed less fixed and flex less flex' - more balance in the labor market by making fixed contracts more flexible and flexible contracts more secure. But the way the VBAR looks now, it hardly matches that vision anymore. That's a shame. The right to entrepreneurship must be guaranteed. The VBAR should not force people into being employees if people do not want to be.

Then I would like to go back a little further than 2024. In late 2023, Josette Dijkhuizen became a crown member of the SER because of her expertise on the self-employed. That is a step in the right direction, to give the interests of the self-employed a better place in the polder. Within the SER, after all, important long-term decisions are made regarding socio-economic policy in our country.

That the VBAR, in almost unchanged form, was sent to the Council of State. As a member of Parliament, and several parties with me, I was critical of the content of the VBAR. In my opinion, too little was done with it at the time. The Internet consultation in the fall of 2023 also produced many critical - and at the same time valuable - responses. The Council of State has now come out with a critical opinion and is bouncing the ball back. This could have been prevented at an earlier stage by making changes to the bill.

I hope that the enforcement on false self-employment will mainly tackle the rogue parties and will protect vulnerable self-employed people. Especially at the base of the labor market the problems occur. That segment deserves extra attention and hopefully enforcement on labor relations will contribute to that in a positive way.

*This interview is part of a series, in which in recent weeks the Public Affairs team has interviewed several experts closely involved in issues surrounding the self-employed and the labor market. The series consists of six interviews, which will be published in the coming weeks.

To avoid false self-employment, it is essential to meet various criteria and elements associated with self-employment. These criteria include:

• Entrepreneurial risk: make sure you bear the financial risk for your business and the work you do. Commercial risk is part of entrepreneurship;

• As a self-employed person, make sure you make business investments of some magnitude. Consider investments in business equipment such as a laptop or investments in courses and training;

• Make sure that you actually behave as an independent entrepreneur in economic and social life. Consider the number of clients you have and an active role in acquiring new clients;

• It is important to actually implement contractual agreements in practice. Practice is leading, not agreements on paper. In legal jargon in legal jargon.

By meeting these criteria, self-employment can be demonstrated and prevent the Inland Revenue from qualifying the employment relationship as an employment contract.

Bogus self-employment is a complex and important issue. For both self-employed workers and clients, it is essential to be aware of the legal definition, the risks, and the steps that can be taken to ensure proper qualification of the employment relationship. Carefully considering all relevant facts and circumstances and encouraging entrepreneurial criteria are crucial to actually working as an independent contractor.

HeadFirst Group finds it important to inform clients and freelancers about the latest political-social developments. Watch our webinar back about the lifting of the enforcement moratorium and how to prevent false self-employment.