Dutch Board for Craft Trades

Welcome to the HBA

The name of our organisation is 'Hoofdbedrijfschap Ambachten' (HBA), the Dutch Board for Craft Trades. This is a public organisation representing entrepreneurs and employees in the skilled craft trades in the Netherlands. It covers 36 affiliated trades and nearly 80,000 businesses providing employment for over 300,000 people. The HBA is still growing.
The HBA was established in 1956 under public law. Its main aim is to serve both the public interest in general and the specific socio-economic interests of the affiliated craft trades.

The HBA is headed by an executive board. The members of this body are nominated by business associations and trade unions in the relevant sector of craft trades. The chairman of the Board is appointed by the Crown. For individual trades there are committees, with members of employer and employee associations, rooted in those trades. The HBA seeks to combine synergetic efficiency between the affiliated trades as well as a differentiated response to the needs of individual craft trades.
The secretariat, headed by the general secretary, assists the executive board and the committees. The staff is expert in various areas, such as the economic, legal, research, education, labour market and information fields. Every affiliated trade has an account manager in the bureau of HBA to help them plan their activities, together with other trades and specifically for their own trade.

The Dutch system of statutory trade organisations

The HBA is a statutory trade organisation (PBO) set up under public law, the Industrial Organisation Act. On the one hand this kind of organisation bears a resemblance to government agencies or local councils. Within certain statutory limits they can for example establish facilities and lay down rules for their own sector and they can impose levies in order to finance their activities. On the other hand, these are self-governing bodies of the industry in question, separate from central government.

The mission of these statutory organisations is to serve the interests of their sector as a whole and the general public interest. They are not allowed to introduce measures that might impede competition and free movement between EU member states. On the contrary, they have often tasks to implement EU-rules, tailor made for their sector. The government and the Social and Economic Council supervise the statutory organisations in the sense that they don’t misuse their legally attributed powers.

The statutory trade organisations are subdivided into commodity boards and industrial boards. Most commodity boards are to be found in the agrifood sectors (flowers, milk, eggs, meat). They are vertically organised: they cover the production chain from farmers to retail business. The industrial boards, like the HBA, are horizontally organised and cover one sector with the same kind of activity, such as retail or craft trades. Now there are seventeen of these statutory trade organisations. Typically Dutch is the cooperation between entrepreneurs associations and unions. Just because of this culture characteristic they are often called ‘social partners’ in the Netherlands.

They are only set up once they have the backing of representative organisations of entrepreneurs and employees. These also appoint the Executive Board. So each sector decides for itself whether or not to set up such a board. Once a board has been established, the Dutch Social and Economic Council checks every four years whether it has still enough support. The most important criteria are: the commitment of representative organisations of entrepreneurs and employees and enough support of the individual enterprises in the sector.

Affiliated skilled trades

Skilled craft trades have to decide for themselves to join the HBA. Fact is that the affiliated trades differ widely in terms of scale and the nature of their activities. The smallest industry consists of just several dozen businesses, and the largest of over 17,000. Skilled trades may be engaged in services (e.g. hairdressers and chiropodists), production and repairs (e.g. construction workers, confectioners and shoemakers), food retail (e.g. bakery), optical and dentical instruments and artistic fields (e.g. clothing, gold- and silversmiths and whiteware businesses).

These trades have in common that their members earn their living with skilled hands.
They have to operate in a rapidly and radically changing world, in terms of markets, technology, government and EU regulations and vocational training systems. The trades are required to respond to these changes.
The small scale of many of the businesses makes it necessary to forge an administrative and financial base at industry level (66% of the enterprises are one-person businesses, while over 96% have fewer than 10 employees). The HBA offers the opportunity to pool their resources and learn from each others experiences. Cooperation within as well as between industries is indispensable. The HBA lends a helping hand in this process.

HBA-policy: sustaining craftsmanship, entrepreneurship and communication

The Netherlands traditionally had a host of skilled trades apart from its larger industrial enterprises. As industrial production got under way and goods were produced for the mass consumer market. However, skilled trades moved increasingly from production as such into the area of maintenance and services. In general terms: not only the quality of the product itself, but the wish or need of the individual consumer has increasingly become the central focus of business. In other words: the modern craftsmen have to solve consumers problems. Good and even excellent entrepreneurship has become of vital importance.

In the view of the HBA, craftsmanship is of course necessary, but not enough for the survival of many craft trades. Dynamic entrepreneurship, good employment policy, environmental protection and a good image: these notions are of equal importance. The HBA steps in where voluntary cooperation and the government fall short by helping equip entrepreneurs to compete in the market.
The HBA has defined her policy for the years 2010-2015: the AVOICE program:

• Ambachtseconomie (craft economy): 
  Convincing the public and policy makers that crafts are essential for society, now and in the future , with opportunities for all ages.
• Vakmanschap (craftsmanship):
  Stimulating the influx of (young) people and measures to maintain existing professionals.
• Ondernemerschap (entrepreneurship): 
  Strengthening entrepreneurship and businesses, from start to finish
• Imago (image):
  Promoting and increasing the attraction and appeal of the trades. 
• Collectieve actie en belangenbehartiging (collective action and looking after interest):
  Encouraging cooperation between like-minded industries to attain a common goal.
• Effectieve afstemming (effective coordination):
  Transferring the message of the craft economy internally and externally, to the government and the public, unanimously.

Further information

More detailed information is available (in Dutch) on various topics touched on in this website. This information may be obtained from the HBA's Public Relations Department or Information Centre or on our internet site: www.hba.nl.