International

Today Dennis de Jong, who heads the SP’s list for the European elections, paid a visit to strawberry grower Jan van Meer of the Breda-based company Meerfruit. While in the past strawberries were picked by young Dutch people as a holiday job, the strawberry growers now turn to seasonal workers from eastern Europe. ‘It’s in the main the stipulations regarding working conditions for young people that in fact make it impossible to employ them to pick strawberries,’ De Jong explains. ‘This needs looking at, because it can’t of course have been the aim of this legislation. Happily Meerfruit pays the eastern European workers the rate negotiated under the collective labour agreement (CAO) for the sector, and includes them properly in pension and social security systems. Jan van Meer also wants to improve their housing conditions, but that’s tough going. Patrick van Lunteren, who will shortly take office as the SP’s councillor in Breda with responsibilities in this area, is working on it. If you have no choice but to hire eastern European seasonal workers, then the government should be working on this too.’

Dennis de Jong during his visit to strawberry grower Jan van Meer

Van Meer does his level best to run his business in as decent a fashion as possible. Strawberry cultivation on open fields is limited to the only countries where the soil is suitable for it: Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Seasonal workers come cheaper in Belgium, however, because no social security premiums are deducted from their wages. This leads to unfair competition. ‘It’s important that in this sector equal pay for equal work is the rule,’ says De Jong. ‘What this means is that in every member state seasonal workers, who are often employed for several months at a time, should not only be paid the going rate for the job, but also that social security and pensions payments should be made by their employers in order to prevent unfair competition. It’s strange that the rules for seasonal workers from other EU member states works differently in Belgium from how they do in the Netherlands. I’ll be looking more closely into this question, but it’s clear that Employment Minister Lodewijk Asscher needs to take action and speak to his Belgian colleagues as soon as possible.’

In the afternoon De Jong joined a large group of SP activists as they distributed the party’s election leaflet door-to-door in the nearby town of Zundert. People receiving the pamphlet on their doorsteps in many cases joined in discussion with De Jong and his party colleagues. ‘A lot of people with whom I spoke expressed the view that “Brussels” does far too much meddling,’ says De Jong. ‘A care worker told me that she was extremely positive about cooperation with other countries but the Netherlands must remain in charge of health care. That’s why the SP joins her in saying “no” to this European Union.’