News item | 09-07-2025 | 12:00
The cabinet has decided to greatly increase the fines for companies that violate labor laws. This measure has been taken to prevent the exploitation of labor migrants in particular and to promote fair employment conditions.
Minister Van Hijum of Social Affairs and Employment: “With the higher fines, I want to send a clear signal: we no longer tolerate the exploitation of workers. Companies that are guilty of this will be punished more heavily. Employers should not consciously violate the law because compliance with the rules costs more than the profit by low wages.”
The higher fines apply to the following laws: the use of illegal work (WAV), for paying the statutory minimum wage and the minimum holiday allowance (WML), in the deployment of workers via Loan (Waadi) and the law that deals with the employment conditions for posted employees in the EU (Wagweu).
The fines will be considerably higher because they will be indexed retroactively. The fines have not been adjusted in recent years, it is expected that they will increase by around 18% per violation. From now on, an indexation of the amounts will take place every year, so that the fines are taken seriously and have an effect. More information about the increase in the fines will follow at the beginning of 2026.