oa Kanttekeningen bij de nieuwe zelfstandigheid

Critical observations to the new self-employment

This article gives some comments and remarks to the phenomenon of self-employment, based on recent (international) studies of the self-employed in the construction industry. Self-employment is on the rise in the Netherlands. However, self-employment cannot be found in legal texts. Sometimes the term covers freelancers, in other situations it is applied for independent workers without personnel. After a paragraph that is dedicated to the problems related to the lack of a unified regulatory frame the author reflects on the consequences that a further growth of self-employment can have for a sector. The development of the construction sector in the UK makes clear that serious consequences come to the surface with regard to quality and productivity that are caused by serious skill deficits. In the UK the ad hoc solution is the structural recruitment of foreign skilled labour. The creation of an open market in the European Union, offering free provision of services and functioning in a situation with Member States having different and divergent regulatory frames for an employment contract and for a contract for (the provision of) services, has made it possible for dubious agencies to promote and abuse the self-employed status by supplying employees as so-called service providers. The consequence is a destabilising labour market.