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The growth of solo self-employed workers in the Netherlands (zzp’ers) has not yet triggered a debate on how to combine their income security and business autonomy. The extent to which the social protection system and interest groups promote zzp’ers to take up collective arrangements mitigating income insecurity due to work incapacity and preventing income insecurity due to poor employability is investigated using the social risk management framework. Correcting economic obstacles and irrational risk perceptions, collective arrangements are found to encourage the take-up of work incapacity insurance and training among zzp’ers.

The right to a minimum subsistence level in the Netherlands is covered by a comprehensive network of schemes. All schemes are part of a rights-based system: if the conditions are fulfilled, this creates a right to social assistance benefit. The most important Act is the Participation Act, the main features of which are described in this paper. Attention will be paid to conditions for benefits and the increasingly strict obligations and sanctions. This paper provides insight into some of the consequences of the recently implemented decentralization policy in the Netherlands.

The possibility to balance work and eldercare in the Netherlands is determined by legal and institutional factors (such as special employment entitlements for a career in the form of leaves and a flexible working arrangement). In our paper we compare the Dutch legislation in this field with the HRM practice of four Dutch public and private (non-profit and for-profit) organizations. The aim is to check what kind of workplace eldercare assistance is provided by the organizations and what forms are applied due to legal regulations and what goes beyond these regulations and why. The results show that the relationship between employer and employee is based on mutual trust. Dutch employers are – as far as circumstances permit – more generous in practice than the specific legislation requires, mainly due to the minimum rights in the legislation. A reason for the generosity is self-interest. The Dutch regulation of sick pay can be seen as an incentive to prevent sickness as it obliges employers to continue paying the wages during sickness for a long period. Moreover, they want to build loyalty and motivation among their employees by developing a formof corporate social responsibility.

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