Dutch temp agencies send employees on anti-discrimination course

Temporary employment agencies Randstad and Tempo-Team are sending all their employees on a mandatory anti-discrimination course. The intent is for this course to teach the some 1,500 employees of the agencies to say 'no' if clients ask them to discriminate, a spokesperson for Randstad Nederland, under which Tempo-Team also falls, confirmed to NU.nl.

This course is one of the measures Randstad Nederland is taking after television program Radar revealed last month that temp agencies are willing to discriminate if the clients request it. Radar posed as call centers looking for workers and asked for no Turks, no Surinamese and no Moroccans. Nearly half of the 78 temp agencies called were willing to discriminate in this way, which is in violation of the Equal Treatment Act.

Randstad Nederland is shocked by Radar's findings and immediately started taking measures against discrimination, the spokesperson said to the newspaper. "Discrimination has no place in our organization. If employees get this question, their answer should simply by 'no'."

In addition to sending its entire staff on an anti-discrimination course, Randstad Nederland will also use 'mystery shoppers' to see how employees respond to discriminatory requests. The company will also make sure that its current online courses contain recognizable examples of such types of discrimination.