Temp agencies happy to discriminate on clients’ behalf: Report

Many temp agencies in the Netherlands are happy to discriminate based on ethnicity if their client asks for it, according to research by television program Radar.

For the study, the program called 78 temporary employment agencies in the provincial capitals posing as a call center looking for workers. They asked for no Turks, no Surinamese and no Moroccans, saying that the company had bad experiences with people of these ethnicities in the past.

Almost half of the called agencies immediately agreed that this could be arranged. Only 36 percent said they are not allowed to discriminate based on ethnicity. The rest refused to make any statements about how they select people.

The General Act on Equal Treatment and Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution state that everyone in the Netherlands, regardless of origin, must have an equal chance at getting a job.