Social affairs minister Eddy van Hijum has told companies that employ large numbers of foreign workers via staffing agencies that they have to get their house in order or face a ban on using temporary staff.

The ban, Van Hijum said, would be an additional measure that could be taken if the results of efforts to stop the exploitation of foreign workers do not pay off.

“We have to make progress now,” Van Hijum said in a briefing to MPs. “The problems have continued for too long. Employers have to get their sectors organised properly. Companies should treat their workforce decently and not pass the problems on to wider society. Everyone has the right to a proper standard of living, including labour migrants.”

Van Hijum’s decision follows reports from labour inspectors about staffing agencies that sack a disproportionate number of workers and research by SOMO into problems in the meat industry, which relies heavily on foreign workers.

Van Hijum said he hoped to have a clearer picture of the options early next year. “A ban would be a far-reaching step, a last resort,” he said. “That is why we are looking at the situation carefully.”

The minister, who represents the NSC in the cabinet, said he is also working on draft legislation which would allow him to close down staffing agencies that break the rules.

MPs are due to debate labour migration with the minister on Wednesday.

Last month, the right-wing Liberal VVD called for new measures to reduce the number of people coming to the Netherlands to do low-skilled work, saying the current cost to society is too high.

The plan is outlined in a new policy document drawn up by MP Thierry Aartsen, who told the AD in an interview that the Netherlands would always need foreign workers but “it must be fewer than we have now”.

 A major report commissioned by the government and published in 2020 made 50 recommendations for improving the situation of people coming to the Netherlands from abroad to work in greenhouses or in the meat industry.

However, so far little has been done by the government to implement the measures although the social affairs ministry plans to introduce some form of certification scheme in 2025.

Earlier this year, the labour inspectorate also published a report saying the kennismigrant, or highly-skilled migrant, scheme, which allows thousands of people from outside the EU to work in the Netherlands, is open to fraud, is outdated and there is no adequate supervision.