Another Lesson From The Netherlands

I am a pro-Labor type of guy, but the situation in Holland has helped me understand the point of view of the business lobby. We shouldn't give away the farm but we have to work together. One businessman I met on a recent trip to Amsterdam told me he was afraid to hire new employees that weren’t his relations or otherwise very well known to him, because as he said, “You can’t fire them, they don’t come to work, or they do a lousy job, and you try to fire them, the government tells you to take them back, you actually have to get permission to fire someone for doing bad work.”
Now that last bit sounded a little unlikely to me so I checked it out. Kernkamp Advokaten, a Dutch law firm, has this to say on the subject:

The dismissal of employees with a contract for an indefinite term is generally not impossible, but this will most always cost time, effort and money. In the absence of mutual agreement or cause the employer may generally not terminate the contract of employment without a permit, to be obtained from the Dismissal Authority. This will take several months and it is not always predictable whether one will obtain the required permit or not.

In other words, unless your employment contract specifically states a date that you will be let go (you are hired as a temp), your employer has to get a permit to fire you. While this sounds nice from a labor standpoint, even I can see how it might cause some business to flee the country. Even a die-hard Liberal like me has to be willing to compromise when it comes to issues like this. I don’t want my labor reduced to a commodity to be sold to the lowest bidder, but there needs to be some freedom of action for the business owner also. Something between what we have in the Western U.S. and the Netherlands would be a good place to aim at.