In addition to KLM, Booking and the NS, there are a striking number of employment agencies the list of one hundred largest recipients of NOW wage support. Many large retail chains and regional public transport companies have also received millions of euros in support to pay their staff during the first months of the corona crisis.
Fifteen of the hundred companies that received the most support from the NOW scheme are payroll companies, employment agencies or secondments. Tempo Team, EV Tilburg, Randstad and Kolibrie Payrolling received more than 10 million euros in support, according to data released by the UWV on Friday. A day earlier, Minister Koolmees mentioned it as a striking sector in a letter to parliament about the scheme.
The ministry does not want to discuss the question why the minister found the sector so striking, but it can be guessed: it was expected that the employment agencies would fire the forces they could no longer send out en masse.
Scarcity on the labor market
The use of the aid measures seems to indicate that this has not happened. Koolmees writes in his letter that some 400,000 temporary workers are paid wages through the NOW scheme.
It is not surprising that more than 2,600 temporary employment agencies have made use of the scheme. In April, the trade association NBBU already called on its members not to fire the temporary workers they employed.
“In this way, the companies have helped a lot of people, but also themselves,” says NBBU director Marco Bastian. “Six months ago there was still a scarcity in the labor market. It is important to bind people to you before the economy picks up again. You certainly don’t want to lose them if you work with specialists.”
Public transport companies will pay back
There are also many regional public transport companies among the largest NOW recipients. The Amsterdam GVB received more than 20 million euros in support money, Connexxion almost 9 million euros and Q-buzz, Keolis, Arriva, Rotterdam’s RET and the Hague HTM also received several million.
Like the NS, these companies submitted their applications months ago. However, because there is now a separate scheme for public transport companies, transporters can no longer use the NOW. Therefore, they have to return the millions that they have already received to the National Government.
Retailers made most requests
More than 25,000 retail companies knocked on the door of the NOW counter. The retail trade was therefore the sector with the most requests. There were also large chains in between. Primark is the retail company that received the most wage support, 13 million euros. In addition, HEMA, H&M and Bijenkorf raised approximately ten million to continue to pay their staff.
There were just slightly fewer requests from the catering industry. However, the catering entrepreneurs who submitted an application were hit hardest. On average, their sales in March, April and May were 80 percent lower than normal.
Quarter of the money to Amsterdam
The catering businesses in Amsterdam were hit hardest. There the lost turnover was even 85 percent. Other sectors in Amsterdam also appear to have been hit relatively hard. Companies in the Greater Amsterdam region have received almost a quarter of all wage support. In total, the more than 16,000 companies from this region together received some 630 million euros in support.
That is much more than other regions. For example, companies from the Rijnmond region, which includes Rotterdam, received only about 7 percent (175 million euros) of NOW funds.
Other labor market regions where companies received relatively much support were the region around the city of Utrecht and the area around Gorinchem. In Groningen, the head of North Holland and Friesland, companies received the least support on average.
In this interactive map you can see how much NOW has been allocated in a municipality:
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