International

“Why is the Employment Minister in such a hurry to complete the opening of our borders?” asked SP Member of Parliament and spokesman on employment and social affairs Paul Ulenbelt during today's debate on the free movement of workers. “The entire cabinet has spent its first hundred days in listening mode, but this minister is not listening to the trade unions, to the four biggest local authorities, to people living in horticultural areas who are seeing enclaves or ghettoes of foreign workers springing up around them.”

Ulenbelt confronted the minister with the fact that, according to the Union of International Employment Agencies, the unbridled admission of workers from the new EU member states, which the government wants to see, will create an explosion of abuses. He began his presentation by sketching out the existing and expected problems.

“The local authority of The Hague informs us that 70% of legal workers, which is to say those who are employed by a firm which has an employment permit, are housed in conditions which are illegal or unsafe. That shady employment bureaux buy property, stick mattresses in it and rent them out per mattress.”

“People living in the tourist resort of Arcen are protesting vigorously against the permission which the council executive want to grant to a dubious employment bureau which is looking to house 500 Poles in 85 containers stuck on a recreation field. The containers have room for 170 people at most.”

“The FNV (the main national trade union federation) and various of its members report that in many sectors it has proved impossible to reach agreements with employers on effective implementation of collective work agreements. Many employers' organisations will no longer cooperate, despite the agreements. In the ports the situation can be called tragic. The state was quite rightly admonished by the courts for its failure to follow international registration requirements for port workers. Instead of responding by introducing registration, the international treaty is cancelled. Now that there's no registration, unqualified workers are permitted to work in the ports. In the first three months of this year three unqualified foreign workers suffered fatal accidents in Dutch ports. My question is this: what has changed in the ports in the last few months that justifies doing away with employment permits?”

“Employment Minister Piet Hein Donner points to 225.000 unfilled vacancies. This morning the Central Bureau for Statistics announced that unemployment stood at 379.000 for the first quarter of the year. Just as high as the previous quarter. No fall at all. The minister would be better off making speedy arrangements to help these people find work. That might take a bit more effort than opening the borders with a single stroke of your pen, but it would be better for the country and for the people.”

“The entire cabinet has spent its first hundred days listening, but this minister is not listening to the trade unions, to the four biggest local authorities, to people living in, first of all, horticultural areas who are seeing enclaves or ghettoes of foreign workers springing up around them. He isn't listening to the Union of International Employment Agencies, a group of thirty bureaux which specialise, amongst other things, in recruiting workers from Poland. What has he to say about the expected explosion of abuses? Does he understand that a lot of problems will be exacerbated by the complete opening of borders? And that he is at the very least jointly responsible for finding a solution to these problems?”

“If you want to welcome guests, you must first put your own house in order. The only truly new measure taken, executive enforcement of the minimum wage, does not constitute putting the house in order. There is a great deal more which needs to be done if we are to welcome foreign workers and ensure that they are not underpaid, that they are not housed in miserable conditions and that they do not present workers and small employers with unfair competition.”

The minister writes that “in the most vulnerable sectors specific national agreements have been elaborated.” But the FNV says that this is not the case. “In which sectors, and what are the agreements?” asked Ulenbelt, demanding “a precise, written overview.”

Relations with central and eastern European countries would be damaged, the minister claims. “Where did you get that?” asked Ulenbelt. “Which minister of foreign affairs from these countries has said anything about this, and what precisely did he or she say?”

“Why don't you make those who employ foreign workers responsible for enforcing the collective work agreement prevailing in their sector?” he continued. “And why won't you make employers who bring in foreign firms jointly liable for the working conditions of those employed under these arrangements? By making the contractor who takes on another firm to work with its machines and use its workplaces responsible?”

“Jerzy, Czeslaw, and Karolina have the right to equal pay for equal work, to decent housing and a safe workplace. They must be protected. Employers addicted to cheap labour should not be allowed to maintain their habit. Keep employment permits, introduce a law governing the housing of temporary foreign workers and regulate the responsibility of service providers and contractors.”