THE HAGUE, 01/06/06 - Social Affairs State Secretary Henk van Hoof will lift restrictions in five sectors next month on workers from the countries that joined the EU in 2004. They will be allowed free access to jobs in the agricultural sector, inland waterways shipping, abattoirs and fish-filleting companies, scientific research and the small metal sector.

The five sectors designated by Van Hoof yesterday are facing a shortage or threatened shortage of Dutch employees. The relaxation will be effected by abolishing the so-called labour market check. This means the Centre for Work and Income (CWI) will no longer first check whether sufficient personnel can be found for these sectors in the Netherlands and the 'old' EU member states.

The abolition of the labour market check saves employers time and administrative red-tape. "Now, it costs them 10 weeks on average to get a work permit. After the relaxation, this could drop to two weeks," according to Van Hoof. The new regime applies to workers from Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Van Hoof wants to fully open up the borders for all sectors on 1 January 2007. He is relaxing the requirements for the five sectors from July in anticipation of this measure, about which parliament has serious doubts and will only decide in the autumn.

Employer organisations VNO-NCW (large companies) and MKB (smaller companies) consider Van Hoof should have designated more sectors. They pointed out that 70 sectors have been investigated. "It is then a very cautious first step to choose five now," said a MKB spokesman. He hopes other sectors will follow as quickly as possible.

Conversely, the FNV and CNV union federations are surprised by the speed with which Van Hoof made his decision. They say they were still in talks with him. "The discussions had scarcely got underway," said Ton Heerts of FNV. He and CNV consider "it is going too fast now."

Van Hoof is likely to send a proposal to the House in November under which companies would no longer need a work permit for workers from the new EU countries from 2007. Labour (PvdA) and the Christian democrats (CDA) still have to be convinced.

Companies must in any case take care of housing of personnel. Also, their foreign staff must receive the same salary as the Dutch, according to Van Hoof.