Teacher hiring through employment agencies 20k more expensive

Half of a directors of primary schools and special education schools in the Netherlands want to stop hiring staff through employment agencies because they are too expensive, the Volkskrant reports based on a poll among nearly 600 school directors. "Hiring a replacement through an agency for four months costs 20 thousand euros more than someone we recruit ourselves", one director said to the newspaper.

The teacher shortage means that schools increasingly fall back on employment agencies, part-time teachers, and freelance teachers to fill the gaps. One in three directors said they used an employment agency or secondment worker in the past year.

And that is running up a lot of extra costs that can amount to millions of euro that end up with employment agencies and head hunters nationwide, according to the Volkskrant. Some school boards are therefore banning the use of employment agencies, to save public money that can better be spent on education itself.

Minister Arie Slob for Primary- and Secondary Education told the Volkskrant that he applauds such initiatives. "I find it undesirable if employment agencies use the scarcity on the labor market to raise rates, for example." But the Ministry will not ban the use of employment agencies, because that goes against current laws and regulations, a spokesperson said to the newspaper.