Working in the public sector

Information about: the public sector as an employer, the labour market, terms of employment and integrity.

• The public sector as an employer
• The labour market
• Terms of employment
• Integrity

The public sector as an employer
The public sector cannot function well unless it manages to recruit enough good people. With labour in scarcer supply than a few years ago, public-sector employers are having to try extra hard to attract enough well-qualified employees. Almost all public-sector employers recognise this problem. The 2001 policy document "Trends in Public-Sector Employment" deals with public-sector employment in detail.

The minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations coordinates national policy on public-sector employment. Coordinated policy areas include terms of employment, social insurance, recruitment, and the integrity of public servants. The Dutch people must be able to trust the public authorities to do their work with care and integrity. On 1 January 2001, new measures came into force to protect "whistle-blowers": civil servants who expose alleged abuses. In addition, the public authorities must make it possible to report and tackle alleged abuses internally.

The Labour Market
Labour is much scarcer than a few years ago, so the public sector is having to work harder to recruit enough well-qualified, motivated employees. Public-sector vacancies will increase rapidly in the years ahead, for four main reasons:

• continuing economic growth is making labour scarcer 
• many older employees are retiring 
• fewer young people are entering the labour market 
• recent cutbacks in public spending have led to a slowdown in recruitment, creating the impression that there are fewer jobs in the public sector than there really are.

To guarantee a high quality of public service, the government will have to develop an effective and efficient labour market policy.

Terms of employment
When people choose an employer, they think about more than how much they might earn. They also attach importance to secondary benefits: how free they might be to work longer or shorter hours and what opportunities exist for personal development, education, and training. The public sector offers very competitive secondary benefits. Public servants have better opportunities than most employees, for instance, to combine their jobs, whether fulltime or part-time, with their home lives. For those who want to work and care for children or an elderly relative, for instance, working in the public sector has major advantages.

Negotiations on terms of employment are conducted at subsectoral level. In central government, education, defence, the police and the judiciary, the appropriate minister negotiates with employee organisations. Remkes, Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, coordinates policy on terms of employment throughout the public sector. He plays a key part in developing policy on public-sector employment and in making available the public funds to pay for it. He also negotiates with employee organisations in two subsectors: central government and the police.

Integrity
Integrity requires openness and the ability to strike a careful balance between interests. Doing your work with integrity means being able to justify your activities to the world outside. The government aims to make all levels of the public sector fully aware of the importance of integrity.

It is essential to ensure both awareness of and compliance with regulations and to raise awareness of the principles involved among public servants. The Dutch people must be able to trust the public authorities to work with care and integrity.