Dutch unemployed told to find a job - any job

Dutch people who have been on unemployment benefits for more than a year will have to accept any job they are offered, according to new rules supported by a majority in parliament.

Under the new rules, anyone who has been on unemployment benefits for more than a year will have to take any job he or she is offered, even if they are overqualified for the job or if the job pays less than the unemployment benefits.

Dutch unemployment benefits entitle people to 70 percent of their last salary. Provided they have worked for at least four out of the past five years, job seekers are entitled to one month of benefits for every year they have worked, up to a maximum of 38 months.

But the system has come under increasing pressure because of budget concerns. Next year, the Dutch government is expected to spend an additional three billion euros on unemployment benefits.

The two largest parties in the ruling coalition, the Christian Democrats and the Labour Party, along with the right-wing opposition Party for Freedom, backed social affairs minister Piet Hein Donner's plan on Tuesday.

However, the junior partner in the coalition, the Christian Union, was critical. Christian Union member of parliament Cynthia Ortega proposed that claimants should be offered a choice of at least three jobs before they lose their benefits.

College graduates to pick tomatoes?

Meanwhile, the largest party in the coalition, the Christian Democrats, would actually like to see the regulations tightened even further, with claimants losing their benefits after six months if they refuse a job offer.

Social affairs minister Donner rejected the proposal by the Christian Democrats. But he also shot down Ortega's alternative. In the light of the economic crisis, he said, it is already hard enough for the benefits agency to find even one job offer.

Opposition Socialist Party member of parliament Paul Ulenbelt accused Donner of throwing knowledge down the drain by "forcing college graduates to pick tomatoes in greenhouses". Donner replied that the Socialist Party seemed to have "a certain disdain for work in greenhouses". He added that it could be "very good for reflection at a certain point for a college graduate to work in a greenhouse".

Other opposition parties, the right-wing liberal VVD and the left-wing liberal D66, expressed concern that the plan will actually cost more than it saves. They pointed fear it will lead to extra spending on wage cost subsidies for employers, and because people who earn less than their unemployment benefits can ask the government to make up the difference.

In reality, some of the changes in Donner's plan are less dramatic than they appear. College graduates already have to accept any type of job after eighteen months; this grace period is now reduced to twelve months. Less-educated job seekers are already under the obligation to accept any job after six months.

The government's economic policy bureau CPB forecasts that the unemployment rate will rise to 5.5 percent in 2009 and 8.75 percent in 2010. In absolute numbers, that means 425,000 Dutch people will be out of work this year and 675,000 next year.