Union fears mass layoffs if state aided companies aren't fined for dismissals

Trade union FNV fears that many, many people will lose their jobs if companies can receive state aid, but can also fire people without being fined. The government is considering scrapping the current "dismissal fine" from the new package to support businesses through the coronavirus crisis for the coming period, NOS reports.

"If you can fire people without a fine, the incentive to invest in workers during the support measures will disappear," Zakaria Boufangacha of FNV said. "Then employers will focus even more calculatingly than now on the short-term interest of their company. The societal interest of maintaining employment and income will no longer come first. That is not a responsible way of dealing with taxpayers' money."

According to Boufangacha, many people with flexible contracts have already been fired while their employers are compensated for wage costs. He worries that the same will happen to permanent employees if a dismissal fine no longer forms part of the conditions imposed on companies that want support. "This state aid is intended to preserve jobs and income."

The union called for solid conditions to be attached to state aid. "If the support measures get companies to start making profits again, it can not be allowed that shareholders are the first to start benefiting again," Boufangacha said.