Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN) reacts angrily to the new corona measures. From tomorrow, catering establishments throughout the Netherlands must close at 10 p.m. Catering establishments may receive a maximum of thirty guests inside, outside a maximum of forty. In addition, hotels will be affected by the advice to limit travel as much as possible.
“Again, there is no substantiation for the limitations”, says KHN chairman Robèr Willemsen. “In the press conference, Rutte talked about clusters in the catering industry. But I don’t see that reflected in the RIVM figures.”
According to the chairman, it is therefore increasingly difficult to request support from its members. “There is no bright spot at all. Not even an additional support package. The situation is becoming hopeless for more and more entrepreneurs.”
KHN gets the idea that entrepreneurs are being blamed for failing policy. “Staff that need to be tested sometimes have to wait seven days here in Rotterdam. They can’t work all the time, but they still have to be paid.”
Worse scenarios
Other business associations are also calling on the cabinet to put the testing policy in order. VNO-NCW and MKB-Nederland ask to do everything in their power to scale up the testing capacity, rapid testing and source and contact research in the coming three weeks.
These business clubs do show understanding for the new measures. “They are a last chance to avert worse scenarios and adjust our behavior”, says Ingrid Thijssen, chairman of VNO-NCW.
“At the same time, this package has profound implications for many of our members.” The entrepreneurs therefore want to talk to the cabinet and the unions again about support for the most affected sectors.
Mouth caps
Store organization INretail calls the measures balanced. The shopkeepers are relieved with it advice that retailers in the regions around Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Eindhoven can choose whether to refuse customers without a mouth mask.
“It is quite a difference whether you come to a spacious furniture store by appointment, or to a busy shop in the city center”, says Paul te Grotenhuis of INretail. “The entrepreneur really has to decide for himself on the basis of his own situation.”
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