Asian hospitality entrepreneurs and branch organizations that had dragged the State to the court because of bureaucratic obstacles to bring Asian chefs to the Netherlands, received bad news from the court in The Hague on Wednesday. The court states In the soil procedure that the Asian catering sector is at the wrong address: entrepreneurs can go to the administrative court for individual cases. That is why the civil court in The Hague cannot deal with the case substantively, is the judgment.
At the beginning of April, the industry associations and owners from Asian restaurants went to court. They feel disadvantaged by the abolition of the so -called ‘wok agreement’. Previously, Asian restaurants were allowed to let specialized chefs come over from the countries in question, such as Thailand, Vietnam and China, with relaxed appointments. The Wok agreement was officially abolished on 1 July last year: the government wants to align the rules for all hospitality entrepreneurs in the Netherlands. What played a role in the abolition was a critical labor inspect report from 2022, which established several cases of abuse of the wok agreement: exploitation, forged paper, even human smuggling.
Asian restaurants in the Netherlands are now obliged to first recruit at least three months of staff within Europe. They may also no longer include certain job requirements, such as work experience in the relevant kitchen or knowledge of language and culture, in vacancies for new chefs. Because, the UWV says, that the work permits issues, every European cook can be trained within three to six months as a specialized cook in Asian cuisine.
There, the sector organizations set the border: they find that unrealistic and fear for the quality of the sector. “We are not arguing for the exceptional position,” said director of the Chinese Asian Horeca Entrepreneurs (VCHO), Lipin Lin, previously against NRC. “We do want to be able to set the job requirements for requested staff.”
Demonstrable damage
According to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, it is still possible to have chefs come across from Asia, provided that restaurant owners show that sufficiently searched for staff in the Netherlands and the European Union. In practice, since the abolition of the scheme, no application or extension of a permit has been approved, the UWV also confirms.
The court in The Hague ruled on Wednesday that individual hospitality entrepreneurs have the opportunity to go to the administrative court if they want to object to not granting a permit. “That is regulated by law,” adds a court spokesperson. “A civil court cannot intervene there.”
In a first reaction to the court’s decision, one of the entrepreneurs, chairman Paul van der Helm of the branch organization for Thai restaurants, says that he is “disappointed.”
“The judge refers us to the administrative court. The problem of this is that you will only go there if you as an individual company have demonstrable damage.” Van der Helm states that the sector has already suffered damage, such as capital loss because a restaurant has to adjust its opening hours due to staff shortages. He also says that a procedure takes a lot of time. “Then it may be that a company had to close all its doors before a statement comes.”
The branch organizations will consider next steps, says Van der Helm. “Where people think about appeal. But also resuming the conversations with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment and the UWV is high on our list.”
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Also read: ‘No cook, no wok’: Asian restaurants miss specialized staff after the loss of the wok agreement