Eveline Bakker

In the Netherlands, nearly 1.7 million people work in healthcare. And yet, there is still a significant staff shortage. These shortages present new challenges for executives and HR professionals. In practice, we see this sometimes leading to the recruitment of healthcare employees who ultimately turn out not to be well-suited for the sector. In this blog series, we will address a variety of employment law issues that may arise, from recruitment through to the termination of employment.

Does an employee continue to accrue vacation even after two years of illness? The answer is yes, and this has important implications for employers.

Recently, the Innovation and Advisory Committee (IAC) of the Governance Committee for Healthcare published the report “Participation and Co-Determination in Healthcare: Towards Innovative Forms of (Co-)Decision-Making?''  The report makes clear that within the healthcare sector there is a need for more flexible, tailor-made, and integrated approaches to organizing participation and co-determination. Based on this report, Renate Vink-Dijkstra, together with Mirella Minkman, Michiel van Berckel Smit, and Daniel Waarsenburg, authored an article for the journal Goed Bestuur en Toezicht (Good Governance and Supervision). The central question addressed is how to ensure that participation is not merely a statutory obligation, but also a source of improved decision-making and genuine engagement.