After investigation, the SZW Inspectorate established that Timber, a company that helps self-employed find work, is a recruitment agency rather than a mediation platform. As a result, temporary workers should be considered employees rather than self-employed, according to a report NU.nl was able to examine.
In the report, the inspectors established that there was fake freelance work, because “freelancers” – as temporary workers are called in Timber – did not adhere to the outcome and had no effect on the content of their contract. There are also fines for canceling a job, while the Inspection Service believes that a self-employed person should set their cancellation policy. “Because there is a three-way relationship between Timber, the self-employed person and the client, this leads to labor savings,” the report states.
According to the SZW Inspection Panel, any person who uses Timberd’s services should be considered an employee and thus fall under the collective labor agreement for temporary workers. This collective labor agreement states, among other things, that no workforce is expected in return and that no obstacles may be imposed on the drafting of the contract. According to the inspection, these two points were not met. For example, temporary workers paid € 1 per hour in service costs.
The case was brought up by the FNV union. He is satisfied with the report and included it in his lawsuit against Mood. The association hopes mainly for a political outcome. It appears that “there have been discussions in the House of Representatives about fake self-employment for years, but nothing ever happens.” “We expect the government to remain in its hands until now,” he added.
Co-founder Niels Arntz says Tempere is not satisfied with the report “on the basis of which inspections cannot issue fines”. “This is a bad job. The inspectorate discovers two cases of potential fake self-employment and writes a faint report in which these two cases are presented as representative of everything we do. This report cannot be called.”
