Last November were the elections in the Netherlands for the House of Representatives. The result was that the right-wing parties formed a majority. Based on this, the PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB started to form which resulted in a new outline coalition agreement which was published on May 16. A preview of the potential future changes in TailorMinds’ area of expertise.
Admission system: Wtta
In recent periods there has been much to do regarding the Wtta (Wet toelating terbeschikking van arbeid). The government is pushing for certification for lending parties such as TM. This with the aim of excluding incorrect companies in our sector. In order to meet the future conditions for obtaining this certificate, contracting parties are checked whether they have their affairs in order such as correct wage payment, tax obligations and compliance with laws and regulations.
This legislation will soon be considered by the House of Representatives. The aim is to make admission mandatory by January 1, 2026. In our last inspection, conducted by Normec, for the Stichting Normering en Arbeid (SNA), we received a flawless report, which means that we have already taken the first big step towards complying with this certificate.
The amount of work and administration that needs to be done for this is a lot and the introduction of this system will only increase this pressure.
Labor migration
The newly formed government is strongly focused on limiting migration to the Netherlands. The main points focus on asylum migration which has no further impact on us. On the other hand, there are also a number of points on labor migration:
- In the case of long-term residence, employers are also given a responsibility for the learning of the Dutch language by these employees
- It will be examined whether and, if so, which tax benefits under the extraterritorial expenses scheme (ETK scheme) will be scaled down
- The qualification requirements of the highly skilled migrant scheme will be tightened and increased.
We are eager to see how the above points will be worked out and the impact. The curtailment of migration will possibly be a burden reduction in the housing market, for example, in the long run. It is possible that a lower administrative burden will allow the IND to devote more time to enforcement. On the other hand, we have been dealing with demographics issues for some time, especially caused by an aging population and low birth rates. Highly skilled migration could be part of the solution here, with the right guidance, to keep the economy from stagnating.
Integration
Finally, the agreement endorses participating in Dutch society and continuing Dutch values. It points to a standard term of 10 years for naturalization, something that currently stands at 5 years. It also raises the language requirement to B1 level. We are curious about the justification for the 10 years because, in our perspective, increasing this time period provides less extrinsic motivation for the migrant to learn the language earlier and become familiar with Dutch culture. In addition, this is also likely to further increase competition for the European employee.
Positive
With interest, despite these proposed policy points, we look forward positively to the further elaboration. We are counting on the common sense of the members of the government who will do this. Left or right, TailorMinds is keen to continue to make a difference.
More information
On the website of Kabinetsformatie you can read the entire coalition agreement. Are you curious how we as a company are preparing for what is to come? Follow us via the website or via our company page on LinkedIn.
