Employers in the education and care sectors have warned that the government’s crackdown on bogus self-employment will add to their costs by forcing workers to sign up with recruitment agencies.

Nearly three-quarters of freelance staff have rejected offers of permanent contracts from their main employer in the last year as the tax office tries to restrict the growing number of people registered as sole traders.

More than 100,000 sole traders, known as zzp’ers, cancelled their registration with the Dutch chamber of commerce (KvK) in the first nine months of the year. But research by Flexonderwijs, a liaison bureau for supply teachers, said 73% of its self-employed teachers were unwilling to take a permanent job.

Jan-Willem Duim, managing director of Flexonderwijs, told AD.nl that temporary staff preferred to sign up with employment agencies, which means the schools have to pay agency fees and VAT to hire their teachers.

The national audit office recently calculated that a teacher on the payroll costs a school €58 per hour, while one contracted through an agency costs €113 per hour.

Duim said teachers who worked freelance saw permanent contracts as too restrictive. “It feels limiting when they’ve chosen to have more freedom,” he said.

VGN, the association for workers in the disabled care sector, said many staff preferred the “revolving door” option of working via an agency, but it would lead to “irresponsible expenses”.

“We have repeatedly tried to lure people who are now working freelance to take on a permanent role, with flexible rotas, better representation and a reasonable collective agreement,” said spokesman Johan van Ruijven.