Deployment of Telework in European Public Administrations

Deployment of Telework in European Public Administrations: An Overview

---

Case No. 10: The Netherlands - The Rijkswaterstaat, 
North Netherlands (Ministry of Transport, 
Public Works and Water Management)
Policy environment
Early telework pilot programmes were implemented by several IT companies in the late 1980s.
By the end of 1995, 22% of Dutch private companies were offering their employees the possibility
of distance working, in particular larger companies: in two thirds of companies with more than
500 employees distance working is facilitated.
51
Network technologies also increasingly gain
importance as domains for public and political debates. These ‘Freenets’ or ‘Digital Cities’ are
organised by private actors and supported by government.
In 1995, the Ministry of Home Affairs initiated an Internet discussion regarding a new White
Paper on informatisation in public administration. Since 1990, the national government has been
among the leaders in Europe as regards telework deployment. Within a national action plan for
the development of the Information Highway launched by the ministries of Economic Affairs and
of the Interior, telework within governmental departments is promoted and realised. At ministerial
level, guidelines were produced which deal with voluntariness, rules for the termination of
telework, criteria for decision-making whether or not to implement telework, the number of
teleworking days and flexibility of working hours, the employers' responsibility for the workplace
and teleworker's availability, equipment required, compensation for expenses, and data security
procedures.
52
At present we find full telework implementation in the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and
Water Management (600 teleworkers) and in the Tax Department of the Ministry of Finance (105
teleworkers), pilots in two further ministries and the intention to conduct trials or extensions in a
further eight government departments.
Frissen (1997:115) has identified two major effects of wide spread intra and inter-organisational
electronic connections in the Netherlands. Firstly, one rationale behind a deployment of ICT all
over Dutch public administration is ‘to detect social security and tax fraud’, whereby the issue of
privacy as intensively discussed in the 1970s has disappeared from the political and public
agenda. Reflexive capacities of public administrations will increase. Secondly, growing
correspondence between electronic networks and policy networks or configurations leads to a
horizontalisation of relations. Policy-making, then, is less hierarchical in nature. As a result, the
so-called 'primacy of politics (for instance the concept of ministerial responsibility) is at stake.