The number of Dutch employees that are currently not building up a second pillar pension has increased by 9.3% since 2016 to 936,000, according to Dutch national statistics agency CBS.
This is roughly 14% of people on temporary or permanent contracts and excludes the country’s more than one million self-employed, the majority of which are not building up a pension either.
Employees without a pension plan often work in the service sector, for employment agencies, payroll firms or market research companies. Driving and fitness instructors are also examples of professions with a low pension plan coverage.
Having no pension is most common among younger workers under 35 years of age.
Trade union VCP said the growth in workers without a pension is worrisome. Together with other trade unions and employer organisations it launched an initiative in June 2020 to turn the tide and stop the growth of workers not accruing pensions.
As part of this initiative, last October the website geenpensioen.nl was launched to inform employees and workers about their options if they are not enrolled in a pension plan.
According to the trade union, so far hundreds of workers that do not have a pension have reported this to the website. Besides, workers for employment agencies now start building up a pension from eight weeks after starting their contracts, down from 26 weeks previously.
The effects of this measure are yet unknown as they haven’t been included in the figures shared by CBS this week.
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