For example, if a Belgian engineering company wants to build a bridge in The Netherlands, they will need to report which workers are coming to work on the bridge, as well as how long they are working. The cabinet agreed to follow the proposal from Minister Asscher of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. A part of this scheme is to allow information to be exchanged between EU member states to allow fines issued in one country to be collected in another.
According to Rijksoverheid, the government wants to combat unfair worker rights and conditions for foreign labour, ensuring equal pay for equal work in the same workplace. While the Dutch government supports the free movement of the labour force, it realises that it must come with more protection.
In June 2015, it was announced that Asschers' proposal to make changes to the directive was supported by a number of EU member states. At first it seemed that Asser was alone in asking for the directive to be amended. However, the minister has now presented his idea to the European Commissioner for employment, Marianne Thyssen, supported by Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Sweden. The European Commission intends to draw up the proposal to make the free movement of services and workers fairer towards the end of this year.
The government is also taking steps to counter a 'race to the bottom,' where governments try to improve economic activity by removing control on the economy. This leads to lower wages and poorer working conditions for workers, two focus points of The Netherlands’ EU Presidency in 2016.
The cabinet decided to submit the bill to the council of states' advice. The test of the bill as the council's advice will be made public when they are formally presented to the House of Representatives.