Workers Receive Help To Freeze Eggs

DUTCH TV Station Nieuwsuur has discovered that at least seven international companies based in The Netherlands are offering to reimburse female staff for the cost of freezing their eggs.

Also included in the offer to staff is purchase of donor sperm, extra IVF rounds or costs for surrogacy and adoption.

This is quite a common perk in the USA where medical costs are high and insurance doesn’t always cover these types of procedure but they do generally come with ‘strings attached’ whereby in order to qualify, staff members must agree to continue to work for the company for a set period of time.

In Holland however, the seven companies, identified as McKinsey, Hubspot, LinkedIn, Uber, Salesforce, SurveyMonkey and Google, although following American parent guidelines, generally don’t require staff to sign up for longer periods of work.

Unlike countries like Spain and the UK, there is no universal free healthcare service in Holland and all workers are required to take out medical insurance (the cost of which is set and reviewed by government) although some people are able to qualify for certain health benefits though their social security payments.

There is no doubt however that the Dutch have one of the best and most sophisticated health services in the world which is generally affordable by a large percentage of the population.

This benefit from the seven companies is a real bonus for many staff members but there Is always the possibility that the very fact of offering this service actually encourages female staff to put off starting a family and could make them feel pressurised into working for longer than they originally intended.

In addition, this fringe benefit could cause a divide between those who work for the seven companies and those who don’t and can’t afford to follow the same routes even if they want to