Industrial Relations and Works Councils in the Netherlands—Results from Interviews and a Survey among HR Managers

Abstract

The Netherlands has highly institutionalized industrial and employment relations, as is illustrated by the so-called Dutch ‘Building of employment relations’, in which the works council plays an important role. Although Dutch industrial and employment relations are quite peaceful—very few strikes—a serious threat to Dutch industrial relations is the current flexibilization of the labor market, causing a gap between so-called insiders and outsiders on the labor market. Dutch government and central social partners are currently trying to close this gap, and the works council can also play a role, for example by pressing the company to appoint workers with difficult positions on the labor market. This asks for open dialogue and constructive negotiations between management and works council. Based on ten interviews and a survey among Dutch HR managers, it appears that social dialogue is quite constructive within Dutch organizations. Most managers talk openly with the works council, involving ERs early in the process of decision-making, trusting them, and sometimes they succeed in innovating the system of employee participation, especially by extending employee participation to all employees. The survey shows that Dutch HR managers perceive relatively little task conflict with ERs, high integrity of ERs, cooperative conflict management by ERs, high impact of ERs on innovative issues (e.g. CSR) and high organizational commitment of ERs.