“Retirees and Gen Z ultimately want the same things from work”

The Netherlands is getting older, but that doesn’t mean we’re becoming less mobile. On the contrary. If it were up to Managing Director Marc Leene and Founder Ron van der Net of Doorwerkgever, retirees would be strikingly similar to the average Gen Z’er in their need for autonomy, flexibility, and meaningful work. According to them, work doesn’t automatically stop at retirement age. For many older adults, it is primarily their relationship to work that changes: it is no longer a necessity, but it is still an option.

Doorwerkgever essentially aims to provide a practical framework for retirees who wish to continue working without automatically resorting to traditional forms of employment contracts or self-employment—at their own expense and risk. Doorwerkgever handles administrative tasks, payroll taxes, social security contributions, and more, while ensuring that the worker’s autonomy remains central. In a labor market creaking under the strain of staff shortages, Leene and Van der Net see a vast labor potential that remains underutilized. At the same time, they express strong reservations about how politics and policy address flexibility, social security, and the broader self-employment issue. Oifik discusses this with Marc and Ron.

Ron van der Net: “Let me put it this way: the self-employment issue has really always been a puzzle. As early as 1967, there were already discussions about bogus self-employment. Back then, two construction workers set up a small limited liability company without a small business license, and the question immediately arose: what exactly constitutes self-employment and what doesn’t? Fifty years later, we’re still having that debate. What makes it particularly complicated today is that since the introduction of the enforcement moratorium on the DBA Act in 2016, virtually anything was permitted, and although the method of assessment hasn’t changed, there are now (potential) tax and labor law consequences. People have become accustomed to a situation that no longer exists. In addition, the way employment relationships are viewed also seems to have become more complicated for many people due to the accumulation of case law. The holistic test doesn’t make it any easier either, since all perspectives seem to carry equal weight. As a result, it is no longer clear to many people exactly where they stand. People often look to the Deliveroo ruling, as it is leading in how the employment relationship is classified, but I would personally take a step back and look at earlier European case law, such as the Yodel ruling from 2020. That ruling already contained clear points of reference: among other things, regarding autonomy in the work, and whether the actual experience of autonomy in the work contributes to the classification of whether someone is a self-employed person or not.”