Gen Z must work more, says VVD parliamentary leader Ruben Brekelmans: We won't make it on three days

VVD parliamentary leader Ruben Brekelmans has called for a return to a five-day workweek, arguing that the Netherlands cannot sustain its economy if young professionals continue to work only three or four days per week. During his Binnenhof lecture, Brekelmans noted that current labor shortages persist despite hundreds of thousands of people being out of the workforce. He suggested that shorter workweeks hinder national goals such as housing development, defense expansion, and elderly care, contrasting this with much longer work hours seen in other global economies.

In addition to addressing labor trends, Brekelmans advocated for a significant reduction in the number of government employees. He argued that the current civil service has become an inefficient, slow-moving bureaucracy and proposed implementing hiring freezes across ministries to curb growth. Instead of expanding the workforce, he urged the government to set strict efficiency targets and integrate artificial intelligence to improve productivity by at least 20 percent.