The Inclusive Workplace Agreement (IA) was renegotiated and changed and will now be available to all companies. The country first implemented the IA 17 years ago when sick leave levels began to rise sharply. The IA initially had three main goals: 1. a 20 % cut in sick leave 2. helping more people with various handicaps enter the labour market and 3. help the over-50 extend their work activity by one year. Companies that signed IA agreements with the welfare administration would be given new tools to help them reach these aims. Researched showed that some of these goals were conflicting. For example by hiring more people with a handicap sick levels also rise. The new agreement, that is valid until 2022, therefore only focusses on reducing the sick leave levels with 10% compared to 2018.
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For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers or Sanne van der Gaag, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Willy De Backer wdebacker@etui.org © ETUI