The Future of Work: The Importance of the Netherlands’ New “Right to Work From Home” Legislation

By Kaitlin Lapka

Employees across the world might be heading back to the office, but not all of them are happy about it.[1] According to a recent survey of more than 10,000 knowledge workers from Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the majority (fifty-three percent) of full-time employees who have returned to the office for completely in-person work are not there voluntarily.[2] In fact, approximately eighty percent of knowledge workers surveyed from these six countries indicated a strong desire for more “flexibility in where they work.”[3] Some employers are hesitant to continue post-pandemic remote work flexibility because of negative perceptions surrounding remote work, outdated managerial strategies, rising technology and commercial real estate costs, and the need for collaboration.[4] Given this, what solution is there for workers who prefer to work from home? Some need remote work for health or personal reasons but are now faced with the choice to either comply with their employers’ demands to return to the office or be fired. Enter the Netherlands: The first country in the European Union (EU) and the world to potentially make working from home a legal right.[5]

This past July, the lower house of the Dutch’s bicameral parliament, Tweede Kamer, passed an amendment to the nation’s Flexible Working Act 2015 that is now awaiting final approval from the upper house, Eerste Kamer.[6] If passed by both houses, the new law will force Dutch employers to allow employee requests to work from home (assuming their professions allow for remote work) as well as require Dutch employers to give adequate reasons for refusing such requests.[7] This is a significant contrast from existing law, where employers may legally deny an employee’s remote work request without giving a reason.[8]

The Netherlands’ post-pandemic concept of working remotely is likely here to stay with its new legislation to codify the right to work from home. Courtesy Unsplash.

While a number countries around the EU and world, like Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Chile, and Mexico, have also made varying strides to redefine their laws following the COVID-19 pandemic, no country has yet taken the significant step of establishing a statutory right to allow all its citizens to work remotely.[9] In fact, the Netherlands has been on the forefront of emerging employment law issues, like protecting and increasing work flexibility, for years.[10] For example, nearly a decade ago, the Netherlands first passed its Flexible Working Act of 2015, which gave Dutch employees the legal right to request changes, for example, with the number of work hours and normal work schedules.[11] As a result, employers in the Netherlands became legally required to accommodate increased flexibility requests unless there were substantial business interests preventing accommodation of the request — with Dutch case law subsequently affirming that most standard business interests are rarely considered to carry enough weight.[12] Additionally, the Netherlands also has a strong foundation for remote work comparative to other nations.[13] For instance, two years prior to the pandemic, fourteen percent of Dutch employees already worked remotely — the highest rate in Europe.[14] Since January 2022, the Dutch government has also implemented a reimbursement program for companies to help pay employees who have incurred additional costs due to working remote, like outfitting a new home office space.[15]

Finally, a key reason why the Netherlands’ current legislation is monumental is because it reflects positive public policy goals that can strengthen the country overall.[16] In fact, if passed, the Netherlands’ new right to work from home law will undeniably improve upon a variety of social problems persisting in today’s professional work environment.[17] For example, the “pros” accompanying remote work policies for both Dutch employees and employers include: reduced commuting time; increased working time; reduced financial expenditures; reduced stress; the ability to avoid and/or eliminate office politics; a larger pool of employees to hire from; improved gender diversity, equity, and inclusion for women, minorities, and non-traditional workers; healthier work-life balance; less absenteeism and lower turnover rates; and higher rates of job satisfaction and productivity.[18]

In particular, the ability to ensure diversity and equality is a paramount outcome of the Dutch’s new legislation.[19] For instance, studies conducted last year suggest that women and people of color are more likely to see working remotely as beneficial than their white male colleagues.[20] Specifically, Black remote workers have reported reductions in needing to “code switch” and microaggressions at work, while women have reported less stigmatization in organizing their family and childcare needs.[21] Thus, by passing new remote work laws, the Dutch government can further ensure that these types of equality at work are legally protected.

In conclusion, the Netherlands offers an important employment law case study on the future of work.[22] Moreover, the Netherlands also shows that the post-pandemic concept of working remotely is likely here to stay with its new legislation to codify the right to work from home.[23] Countries, employers, and legal experts worldwide should take note.  

[1] Future Forum Pulse Summer Snapshot, Slack, 1, 4 (July 2022), https://futureforum.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Future-Forum-Pulse-Report-Summer-2022.pdf.  

[2] Id. at 5.

[3] Id. (emphasis added).

[4] Microsoft, Great Expectations: Making Hybrid Work Work, World Trend Index 2022 (Mar. 16, 2022), https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/great-expectations-making-hybrid-work-work (stating that half of the leaders it surveyed are looking to end remote work in the next year); see also Emma Goldberg, The Office’s Last Stand, N.Y. Times (Aug. 28, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/28/business/the-offices-last-stand.html.  

[5] Diederik Baazil and Pablo Fernandez Cras, Dutch House Approves to Make Work From Home a Legal Right, Bloomberg (July 15, 2022), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-05/dutch-parliament-approves-to-make-work-from-home-a-legal-right.

[6] Id.; see generally The House of Representatives and Senate, Government of the Netherlands, https://www.government.nl/topics/parliament/senate-and-house-of-representatives (last visited Aug. 8, 2022).

[7] Id.

[8] Netherlands Poised to Make Work-From-Home a Legal Right, Says Report, Bus. Standard (July 12, 2022), https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/netherlands-poised-to-make-work-from-home-a-legal-right-says-report-122071200055_1.html.  

[9] See e.g., Lockton Global Compliance, New Remote Working Legislation Around the World [Updated], Lockton (June 1, 2022), https://globalnews.lockton.com/new-remote-working-legislation-around-the-world/ (summarizing the state of remote work legislation around the world); Dutch are Making WFH a Legal Right; a Look at Laws in Other Nations, The Federal (July 12, 2022), https://thefederal.com/international/dutch-are-making-wfh-a-legal-right-a-look-at-laws-in-other-nations/.

[10] Katie Bishop, What the Dutch can Teach the World About Remote Work, BBC (June 23, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200623-what-the-dutch-can-teach-the-world-about-remote-work.  

[11] Lisa Waddington and Mark Bell, The Right to Request Flexible Working Arrangements Under the Work-life Balance Directive – A Comparative Perspective, 12(4) Eur. Lab. L. J. 508, 522 (2021).

[12] Maartje Govaert and Annette van Beers, Flexible Working Act: Stronger Position for Employees who Want to Work from Home, Norton Rose Fulbright (Apr. 21, 2015), https://www.globalworkplaceinsider.com/2015/04/flexible-working-act-stronger-position-for-employees-who-want-to-work-from-home/.

[13] Tristan Bove, Is Working from Home a Legal Right? Two Dutch Lawmakers Say it Should be, Fortune (June 23, 2022), https://fortune.com/2022/06/23/work-from-home-legal-right-netherlands-legislation/; see also How Usual is it to Work from Home?, Eurostat (Feb. 6, 2020), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20200206-1 (“In 2018, 5.2% of employed persons aged 15 to 64 in the [EU] usually worked from home”); Bishop, supra note 10 (“While the percentage of employed persons usually working remotely before the coronavirus outbreak lingered at around 4.7% in the UK, and 3.6% in the US, 14.1% of the Netherlands’ workforce” reported working remotely in 2018”).

[14] Bove, supra note 13.

[15] Id.

[16] Per Black’s Law Dictionary, “public policy” is defined as the “collective rules, principles, or approaches to problems that affect [society] or . . . promote the general good . . . [and specifically,] principles and standards regarded by the legislature or by the courts as being of fundamental concern to . . . the whole of society. Thus, strong public policy is when government action, like the Dutch Legislature passing a new law, is intended to positively address social problems. Public policy, Black's Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019). See e.g., Zara Abrams, The Future of Remote Work, Am. Psychological Ass’n (Oct. 1, 2019), https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/10/cover-remote-work (stating that remote work “can improve employee productivity, creativity and morale”); Jessi Davis, Remote Work is Creating new Opportunities for Diversity and Inclusion, HR.com (Jan. 31, 2022), https://www.hr.com/en/magazines/hr_strategy/january_2022_hr_strategy_planning_excellence/remote-work-is-creating-new-opportunities-for-dive_kytuwnsy.html; Arpit Choudhury, Could Remote Work Solve Some of Society’s Most Pressing Problems?, Jotform.com (Aug. 11, 2022), https://www.jotform.com/blog/benefits-of-remote-work/.  

[17] See generally Bill George, The Pros and Cons of Working Remotely, Fortune (Apr. 17, 2021), https://fortune.com/2021/04/17/remote-work-home-hybrid-model-future/; Prithwiraj Choudhury, Our Work-From-Anywhere Future, Harvard Bus. Rev. (Nov.-Dec. 2020), https://hbr.org/2020/11/our-work-from-anywhere-future;  Cathy Reisenwitz, What the Research Says About the Benefits of Remote Work, Clockwise (Sept. 29, 2020), https://www.getclockwise.com/blog/research-benefits-remote-work.  

[18] Id.; see also Lina Vyas & Nantapong Butakhieo, The Impact of Working from Home During COVID-19 on Work and Life Domains: An Exploratory Study on Hong Kong, 4 Pol’y Design and Prac. 59, 59-76 (Dec. 23, 2020).

[19] See generally Ellery Weil, How Remote Work Can Help Close the Gender Gap on Pay Equity, Wrkfrce (Dec. 8, 2021), https://wrkfrce.com/how-remote-work-can-help-close-the-gender-gap-on-pay-equity/; Emma Goldberg, A Two-Year, 50-Million-Person Experiment in Changing How We Work, N.Y. Times (Mar. 10, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/10/business/remote-work-office-life.html.

[20] Future Forum Pulse Summer Snapshot, supra note 1.

[21] Id. “Code switching” can be defined as “the process of shifting from one linguistic code (a language or dialect) to another, depending on the social context or conversational setting.” Code-switching, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/code-switching (last visited Aug. 29, 2022).

[22] Bishop, supra note 10.

[23] Remote Work is Here to Stay — But So is the Physical Office, CBRE Netherlands (July 22, 2020), https://www.cbre.nl/insights/articles/remote-work-is-here-to-stay-but-so-is-the-physical-office; see generally Sandrine Ceurstemont, Teleworking is Here to Stay — Here’s What it Means for the Future of Work, Horizon: The EU Rsch. & Innovation Mag. (Sept. 1, 2020), https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-magazine/teleworking-here-stay-heres-what-it-means-future-work.