"Reforming the Dutch labour market will foster entrepreneurship"

The rules concerning work and social security in the Netherlands must be completely overhauled to ensure our future prosperity. A Committee on the Regulation of Work (the Borstlap Committee) wrote a far-reaching advice to the Dutch government. Erik Stam, professor of Strategy, Organization and Entrepreneurship at the Utrecht University School of Economics is one of its authors.

"In wat voor land willen wij werken? (What kind of country do we want to work in) is the title of the report. The committee investigated the rules that apply in the Netherlands on labour and whether they still fit the way we will work in the future.

Reducing the differences between employees, freelancers and flex workers

Labour law, social security, taxation and skills and knowledge development, everything must focus on reducing the difference between employees, freelancers and flex workers. There's a big difference between their rights in the Netherlands. According to the committee, these growing differences are unjust and harmful to long-term prosperity.

Erik Stam, professor of Strategy, Organization & Entrepreneurship at the Utrecht University School of Economics contributed - among other parts - to the sections on entrepreneurship in the report. "In the transformation from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy, the importance of innovative entrepreneurship as the engine of future prosperity is increasing. Regulation of work should foster and encourage innovative entrepreneurship," says Stam. "The report proposes multiple directions to drive innovative entrepreneurship and ultimately prosperity."

The report makes recommendations to make it more attractive to become an employer.

According to Stam, the report also provides advice in giving employees more room to be entrepreneurs. Investing in organisations and in people should be made more attractive. "The country we want to work in, is an entrepreneurial country. A country in which everyone actively contributes to achieving their own and common well-being," says Stam

Erik Stam is a researcher in the Future of Work hub at Utrecht University.