According to Frank van Gool , chief executive of Otto Workforce, one of the biggest stafing agencies,who gave an interview on Friday in FD ,exploitation and abuse have been an everyday issue on his field. Since 20 years, about 10,000 staff companies have been founded in The netherlands, with most of them hitting rock bottom in the market industry.
There have been many stories in the media this time about workers, especially from eastern Europe, being underpaid and manipulated by such agencies, many of which are opening and closing over night.
Van Gool stated that the Netherlands is the only EU country where people can create a staffing agency without a license. There are 14,200 officially registered agencies, compared to 1,700 in Belgium.
Otto Workforce, 56% in the hands of Japanese listed firm Outsourcing Inc, is operating in 15 countries and a European market leader for cross border staffing contracts. Van Gool added on Friday that besides little companies who are avoiding big taxes, there are other agencies who exploit migrant workers and damage the country’s reputation.
The actions the government now plans to take involve harder inspections on staffing agencies, better information about migrant worker rights and better registration systems for them. The ministers said that language courses and housing projects are also options that Dutch government is considering
