The Dutch Senate just rejected a work-from-home bill; now what?

Sorry, everyone, but it’s official: our time spent working from the sofa wearing sweatpants won’t be regulated by Dutch law. Instead, it’ll stay up to employers on a case-by-case basis whether or not employees can work from home.

The Senate was questioning whether a work-from-home law was necessary — and now it has been rejected by a small majority (one vote, to be exact).

What’s the deal with this law?

Good question. If this law had passed, then work-from-home requests couldn’t have been rejected by your boss willy-nilly.

Instead, employers would need to consider them on the basis of “reasonableness and fairness”, writes the NOS, just like requests to work fewer or more hours.

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The law at stake was already a milder version of an earlier proposal, which proposed that employers could reject WFH requests only if it was heavily in the interest of the business. 

But even with a milder proposal, the Senate still gave the bill a big nee. 👎

Not great for parents

The rejection of this law is a disappointment for many — but mostly for parents.

It’s helemaal not easy to be a working parent, as we know. A fixed work-from-home law could have helped parents continue to work their jobs while staying home to keep an eye on their children when needed.

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This is the case, for example, if a child is sick or if parents cannot find a caretaker.

As Marjet Winsemius, director of The Foundation for Working Parents, tells the NOS, “Not all workers can or want to simply change jobs. That makes employers very powerful, while this law would actually put a brake on that power.”

Whether another version of this law will be requested remains to be seen.

What do you think of this law? Tell us in the comments!