Read Online 1995 - The UnDutchables by Colin White, Laurie Boucke - Free Book Online
Authors: Colin White, Laurie Boucke
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warnings must be issued (on separate occasions). These are only officially recognized if you (the accused) acknowledge acceptance in writing. Without your acceptance, the matter goes to arbitration.
With your signature, the case is presented to the local authorities for assessment and possible authorized dismissal. The word ‘possible’ is used here meaningfully. Should the authorities decide your dismissal is valid, your new-found unemployed status will inevitably qualify you for welfare. Welfare through unemployment is typically 70% of your last salary, paid by the same local authority (1992). Given the Dutch affinity to the guilder (see Chapter 8), it follows that the local authority will be hesitant to approve a dismissal.
At work, employees have little or no fear of being fired. They can basically do what they want. If they don’t like a particular task, they refuse to do it. Some days or weeks later when their supervisor asks them how the project is progressing, the employee(s) typically reply with a shrug and inhale the word ‘ Ja!?! ’
If for one reason or another you find you are experiencing stress on the job, one of the most popular and successful tactics is to stage a nervous breakdown and go on paid sick leave for several months. By the time you return, your employer will either have you work harder than ever to catch up, thereby putting you under stress again, or will ask you to resign. The answer will likely be a negotiated settlement wherein your disappearance is rewarded by a large payment made in such a manner that your welfare claims are not compromised.
You can have quite a nice time working in Holland!
Subsidies
Generous subsidies of all types are available. The most common is the housing subsidy ( huursubsidie ). Also widespread are educational grants and subsidies. These include the arts. Often the financial encouragements are in the form of a purchase of the subject matter by the Government, in order to help the aspiring artists. Some of the works are displayed in a multitude of public buildings for all common taxpayers to savour. The rest (the greater majority) are stuffed away in storage while their owners offer daily prayers that the works will achieve masterpiece status in later decades. In 1973, a psychiatrist was subsidized to pose on a pedestal in a museum, proclaiming himself to be a work of art. (Hopefully he also was hung in a multitude of buildings.)
Life is based in large part around the amount and types of subsidies one receives. Recipients carefully weigh the financial consequences of starting part-time or full-time work. A job seriously affects their welfare and subsidies.
Time-off
Every person recognized by the social security system, employed or otherwise, bank president or street sweeper, is entitled to a minimum of 25 days holiday ( vakantie ) each year. This may seem overly generous until you consider that a large part of the holiday pay ( vakantiegeld ) is deducted from the individual’s wages throughout the year and paid back during the holiday period together with the employer’s contribution, after taxation. Thus the thrifty Dutch award about four weeks’ holiday and pay for roughly half—a classic example of ‘ going Dutch .’ Again, it is the uitkering -ites who win, as they receive a bonus with their welfare payments for four weeks of the year.
Sick leave is yet another way to maximize an employee’s welfare benefits. When you report an illness, representatives are sent to your home about once a week to ‘confirm’ that you are at home and are genuinely ill. The visits are only allowed to take place during specified hours (Monday to Friday, mornings until 10 and afternoons from 12 to 2:30) of the first three weeks of your illness.
This procedure rightly allows the critically ill sufficient latitude to shop for the necessities of life, such as flowers and coffee, without the fear of losing any welfare entitlement.
The System II—Consequences
Based on
With your signature, the case is presented to the local authorities for assessment and possible authorized dismissal. The word ‘possible’ is used here meaningfully. Should the authorities decide your dismissal is valid, your new-found unemployed status will inevitably qualify you for welfare. Welfare through unemployment is typically 70% of your last salary, paid by the same local authority (1992). Given the Dutch affinity to the guilder (see Chapter 8), it follows that the local authority will be hesitant to approve a dismissal.
At work, employees have little or no fear of being fired. They can basically do what they want. If they don’t like a particular task, they refuse to do it. Some days or weeks later when their supervisor asks them how the project is progressing, the employee(s) typically reply with a shrug and inhale the word ‘ Ja!?! ’
If for one reason or another you find you are experiencing stress on the job, one of the most popular and successful tactics is to stage a nervous breakdown and go on paid sick leave for several months. By the time you return, your employer will either have you work harder than ever to catch up, thereby putting you under stress again, or will ask you to resign. The answer will likely be a negotiated settlement wherein your disappearance is rewarded by a large payment made in such a manner that your welfare claims are not compromised.
You can have quite a nice time working in Holland!
Subsidies
Generous subsidies of all types are available. The most common is the housing subsidy ( huursubsidie ). Also widespread are educational grants and subsidies. These include the arts. Often the financial encouragements are in the form of a purchase of the subject matter by the Government, in order to help the aspiring artists. Some of the works are displayed in a multitude of public buildings for all common taxpayers to savour. The rest (the greater majority) are stuffed away in storage while their owners offer daily prayers that the works will achieve masterpiece status in later decades. In 1973, a psychiatrist was subsidized to pose on a pedestal in a museum, proclaiming himself to be a work of art. (Hopefully he also was hung in a multitude of buildings.)
Life is based in large part around the amount and types of subsidies one receives. Recipients carefully weigh the financial consequences of starting part-time or full-time work. A job seriously affects their welfare and subsidies.
Time-off
Every person recognized by the social security system, employed or otherwise, bank president or street sweeper, is entitled to a minimum of 25 days holiday ( vakantie ) each year. This may seem overly generous until you consider that a large part of the holiday pay ( vakantiegeld ) is deducted from the individual’s wages throughout the year and paid back during the holiday period together with the employer’s contribution, after taxation. Thus the thrifty Dutch award about four weeks’ holiday and pay for roughly half—a classic example of ‘ going Dutch .’ Again, it is the uitkering -ites who win, as they receive a bonus with their welfare payments for four weeks of the year.
Sick leave is yet another way to maximize an employee’s welfare benefits. When you report an illness, representatives are sent to your home about once a week to ‘confirm’ that you are at home and are genuinely ill. The visits are only allowed to take place during specified hours (Monday to Friday, mornings until 10 and afternoons from 12 to 2:30) of the first three weeks of your illness.
This procedure rightly allows the critically ill sufficient latitude to shop for the necessities of life, such as flowers and coffee, without the fear of losing any welfare entitlement.
The System II—Consequences
Based on
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