National Survey on Working Conditions (NEA) 2008 13.08.2009
The NEA – National Survey on Working Conditions – is the largest periodic investigation into working conditions in the Netherlands. The NEA was conducted in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. In 2008 more than 22,000 workers participated. The purpose of the NEA is to examine the quality of labour in the Netherlands. The NEA follows trends in labour risks, the effects of these risks, and measures taken by employers. The NEA data are also used to analyse the cohesion between different aspects of working conditions, the content of work, labour relations and employment conditions.
Who is involved in the NEA?
TNO takes care of the coordination and reporting for the project. Since 2005 this has taken place in close cooperation with Statistics Netherlands (CBS). TNS NIPO undertakes the data collection. The CBS provides the sample framework for the survey, incorporates the data on the CBS website and later links the data – anonymously of course – to other large CBS files.
TNO and CBS have been conducting the NEA annually since 2005. This enables the government and social partners to keep a finger on the pulse of workers in the Netherlands.
Outcomes of the survey 2008 concern:
Working hours and overtime
One of the topics in the discussion on employment in the Netherlands in the past years has been the possibility of having part-time workers work more hours per week. The average duration of the contractual working week is 31.6 hours. This average is low compared to other European countries. The most important reason for the low average is the large number of part-time workers, especially among women and young people. In 2008 the average contractual working week increased by 0.4 hour compared to 2005. The increase is due to part-time workers taking on more hours of work per week.
Flexible contracts
In the past thirty years, flexible or temporary labour has developed into a generally accepted phenomenon in the Netherlands. Flexible contracts together constitute 17% of all employment contracts. This percentage was 16% in 2005. There is a strong correlation between flexible employment contracts and the employee's age and the sector in which he/she works. Young people and workers in the hospitality and agriculture sectors in particular often work on the basis of flexible employment contracts.
Intimidation and physical violence at work
A significant number of workers in the Netherlands encounter intimidation and physical violence in the work place. This mainly involves intimidation and physical violence from customers. Intimidation and physical violence from supervisors and colleagues is less common. 19% of employees say they personally had to deal with intimidation from customers in 2008. 6.5% of workers said they were faced with physical violence from customers.
Absence and work-related absence
The sickness absence rate among Dutch workers in 2008 was 4.1%. The decline from the previous years seems to be levelling off. In 2007 the sickness absence rate was 4.2%, in 2006 4.5% and in 2005 4.8%. Women (4.9%) have a higher sickness absence rate than men (3.5%), and older people (5.8%) have a higher sickness absence rate than young people (2.4%).
Working to the age of 65 and beyond
Increasing labour participation in the Netherlands tops the list of priorities for the government, employers and trade unions. Preventing drop-out, reintegrating those who have dropped out as soon as possible, expanding the hours for part-time jobs and continuing work until the age of 65 are important spearheads. Working beyond the age of 65 has recently been added to this. In 2005, 21% of employees said they wanted to work to the age of 65. In 2008 that increased to 36%. 12% of workers said in 2008 that they would be willing to work beyond the age of 65.
Measures to improve working conditions
In order to improve working conditions, it is important that businesses and institutions take measures. Workers often have an emphatic opinion on this. Workers feel that measures to alleviate work stress are the most needed, because they have not yet been taken (say 11% of workers) and because the existing measures are inadequate (according to 31% of workers). After measures to address workload and work stress, measures concerning RSI, emotionally draining work and physically taxing work are considered the most necessary, followed by measures to address safety and noise. Only 8% of workers said that measures were needed to counter intimidation, aggression or violence from customers. This is striking considering that the number of workers that have to deal with this kind of undesired behaviour by customers is considerably higher.
Working from home, telecommuting and reducing commute times
Traffic congestion causes long commutes. The NEA data show that the Dutch employee devotes about four hours per week on average to travelling to and from work. Some companies offer employees possibilities such as working at home or at another location via telecommunications technology, or telecommuting, in order to reduce the weekly commute time. 12% of Dutch workers telecommute at some time or other.
More information can be found at www.tno/nea
