Holland moves to make working from home a legal right
The Netherlands will be one of the first countries to make working from home a legal right. The Dutch parliament approved legislation that would allow employees to work from home on Tuesday, and the Senate is now poised to approve the bill. Currently, employers in the Netherlands can refuse a request to work from home without giving a reason – but under the new law, they will be forced to consider the request carefully and say why they refused the request. During the pandemic, the Netherlands enforced work from home guidelines due to the soaring Covid-19 infection. This has sparked a shift in attitudes about working from the office, with many workers wanting to have flexibility in where they work. The Netherlands will be one of the first countries to make working from home a legal right (file image) The law marks an “important step” for workers, Senna Maatoug of the GroenLinks party and one of the bill’s authors, said on Tuesday. He added: ‘Due to the corona period, we have seen