Developing Institutions Collective agreements in the Dutch IT industry   Industrial relations in the Dutch IT industry have developed in quite an extraordinary manner from a Dutch point of view. Unions were virtually absent in the Dutch IT industry till the start of the 1990s and the industry was predominantly shaped by entrepreneurs and foreign companies. This turned the Dutch IT industry into a lush oasis of individuality amidst a collectivistic ocean. 87 Percent of the Dutch labour force falls under the scope of a collective agreement. In the IT industry this figure was approximately 25 percent in 2005 and used to be much lower.   During the period of 1996-1998 three major Dutch IT companies started using their own collective agreement, which was quite a shock at the time. Was not the Dutch IT industry an example of how industrial relations would be shaped in the future in the Netherlands?   In this pioneering study on the history of Industrial relations in the Dutch IT industry, Van Liempt tries to answer why these collective agreements came about. In this research Van Liempt argues that though institutions may by rigid and inefficient, institutional development is not a matter of institutions changing over time, but rather a process of re-inventing new solutions based on new problems. For one can wonder whether these new collective agreements in the Dutch IT industry have not reshaped the relations between unions and employers in the process.   Email Van Liempt can be contacted via email: adriaan(At sign)vanliempt.com

During 1997 and 1998 three collective agreements emerged in the Dutch Information Technology (IT) industry. They seemed to come from nowhere, because collective agreements, especially in the Dutch IT software and services industry, had been a rarity until then.

Taking into consideration the fact that collective agreements have been in place in the Netherlands since 1927 and that in 2003 85 percent of all employees in the Netherlands fell under the scope of a collective agreement, the relative absence of collective agreements in the Dutch IT industry is quite conspicuous. Then again is it? The IT industry is well known for its relatively young age and its highly skilled employees, which are considered to be more than capable of negotiating their own terms and conditions of employment. So why would companies in the Dutch IT industry opt for an institution like the collective agreement when alternatives are more commonly used?

This study answers this question through a careful analysis of the Dutch IT industry, its history, its actors, and its industrial relations.



Adriaan van Liempt holds an MA in Sociology from the University of Tilburg. Next to running a small IT company since 1994, Van Liempt was affiliated as a research associate with the Hugo Sinzheimer Institute (HSI) at the University of Amsterdam from 1998 to 2004. Van Liempt joined the NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences in 2005. As a lector Sociology he tries to inspire students to think about one of mankind’s greatest miracles: society.

Het onderzoek heeft zich gericht het verklaren van de aanwezigheid van CAO's in de Nederlandse IT sector. De IT sector is de minst polderse sector in de Nederlandse economie en het is opmerkelijk dat tussen 1997 en 1998 ineens drie grote IT bedrijven (EDS, Getroncis en Origin) een CAO gingen hanteren. IT'ers zouden hoogopgeleide assertieve personen zijn, die over alle randvoorwaarden beschikken om zelf te onderhandelen over hun arbeidsvoorwaarden. Waarom nemen bedrijven dan toch een CAO en onderhandelt men met vakbonden en niet met het eigen personeel?

Dit proefschrift is het eerste onderzoek naar arbeidsverhoudingen in de Nederlandse IT sector dat gedaan wordt. Buiten een unieke beschrijving van de (geschiedenis van) de Nederlandse IT sector en de ontwikkeling van arbeidsverhoudingen daarbinnen, worden een tiental case studies beschreven van grote, in Nederland gevestigde, IT bedrijven en wordt een verslag gedaan van een enquête onder 1500 IT professionals.

Deze studie heeft laten zien dat CAO's in het Nederlandse systeem van arbeidsverhoudingen een belangrijke positie innemen en dat, naarmate de IT sector meer en meer verstrengeld raakt met de rest van de economie, de CAO een steeds belangrijkere rol voor hen zal spelen als strategisch instrument bij overnames en insourcing activiteiten.

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Adriaan van Liempt is afgestudeerd als socioloog aan de Universiteit van Tilburg. Naast het zelfstandig ondernemerschap in de vorm van het bezitten van een klein IT bedrijf sinds 1994, was Van Liempt van 1998 tot 2004 onderzoeker bij het Hugo Sinzheimer Instituut (HSI). Sinds 2005 is Van Liempt docent sociologie aan de NHTV Breda.