Court rules that linking migrant worker's housing to work is illegal
A single migrant worker taking on a multi-billion euro employment agency may have changed the way tens of thousands of migrant workers live and work in the Netherlands. In an interim ruling on the man’s impending eviction, the court ruled that the linking of employment and rental contracts is illegal, EenVandaag reports.
Kevin Victor (31) from Sint Maarten came to the Netherlands at the end of 2024 after seeing an advertisement from the employment agency OTTO Work Force. The agency offered a job and a home in one package. He started working as an order picker at Jumbo, but the housing turned out to be much more of a story.
He was first housed in a chalet on a holiday park, then in an abandoned church with 20 others, then in an apartment in Rosmalen, and then in another holiday park. He often had roommates, who changed day by day and occasionally had to sleep in the hallway. His rent was also automatically deducted from his paycheck, as were small fines from unannounced inspections, resulting in the income he received never being consistent.
Kevin took the matter to court when he switched jobs and an OTTO subsidiary, Labour Housing, demanded that he leave his chalet. “They deliberately tried to make me homeless. I couldn’t let that happen,” he told EenVandaag. “It was extremely personal for me. This wasn’t about rules or contracts; this was about someone who could ruin your life.”
Kevin didn’t have a lawyer, but armed with thick folders full of his own research, legal articles, and analyses made with the help of artificial intelligence, he took on the employment agency. And with success.
In July, the court in Utrecht dismissed the eviction notice. The court ruled that linking the employment contract and lease violated the Good Landlord Act, implemented in 2023. It explicitly stipulates that employment and housing must be strictly separated.
The court also ruled that Labour Housing was not allowed to classify the lease as “short-term.” And the court declared Labour Housing’s argument that Kevin had to leave immediately because he no longer worked for OTTO legally invalid.
Joost van Woelderen of the Stichting Bewonersbelangen Arbeidsmigratie, the foundation for residents’ interests in labor migration, called the ruling a turning point. “The judge said: This is unacceptable. And if this applies to Kevin, it also applies to hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in similar situations. It can’t be that someone loses their job and therefore also their home.”
According to the foundation, there are tens of thousands of migrant workers in the Netherlands living in cramped rooms, often without a registered address, dependent on their employment agency for work, housing, and even their health insurance.
Kevin’s case will soon be in court again in a substantive proceeding, where the court will make the final ruling. If the court upholds this interim ruling, employment agencies and housing providers will have to significantly amend their contracts.
