At four in the afternoon, a restaurant manager sees two empty places on the roster. The terrace is filling, the evening shift is close, and a worker is available through an app. The profile looks complete. The rate fits the budget. One confirmation appears to solve the problem.
On 13 August 2026, the Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie announced fines against a freelance platform and nine businesses that hired foreign workers for hospitality and education work. Those workers did not have permission to work in the Netherlands.
The fines totalled €153,300. They included €146,500 under the Wet arbeid vreemdelingen, known as the Wav, and €6,800 under the Waadi rules governing the supply of labour.
The platform described its role as bringing workers and businesses together. The Inspectorate examined how the work was organised. That distinction reaches far beyond this investigation.
The workplace carries its own responsibility
The nine hirers received €80,500 in Wav fines. Individual amounts ranged from €4,000 to €27,000. The platform received €66,000 in Wav fines. It and two hirers also received separate Waadi fines.
For a small company, these are not distant regulatory numbers. A €27,000 fine can consume the margin from many busy shifts. The business may also face replacement costs, cancelled work, management time and difficult conversations with customers or parents.
Booking through a platform does not move every obligation away from the workplace. The Wav uses a broad concept of employer. A business can carry responsibility when a foreign worker performs work for its benefit, even without a direct employment contract.
Divided assumptions create the weakness. The venue expects the platform to have checked. The platform relies on information from the worker. Finance sees an invoice and treats it as ordinary purchasing. Each party holds one piece, while nobody owns the whole decision before the shift starts.
Documents answer different questions
A BSN can look reassuring. So can a Dutch bank account, KvK number, invoice or polished platform profile. None of those items settles the question of whether the person may work in the Netherlands.
Identity, tax registration, contractual status and work entitlement are separate matters. Folding them into one vague idea of being properly registered is where a weak process begins.
Dutch, EEA and Swiss nationals generally have free access to the Dutch labour market. Other workers may need a work permit, or a combined residence and work permit, depending on their circumstances. Rules on retaining identity-document copies also differ.
The practical discipline belongs before work begins. A microbusiness does not need a ceremonial compliance department. It needs one named person who can confirm identity, the basis for work entitlement and the route through which the worker is supplied.
A useful record shows what was checked without becoming a drawer full of documents the business had no reason to retain. The value lies in a clear decision at the right time, not in paperwork assembled after a problem.
Matching and supplying are different businesses
The Waadi adds another question. Is the platform simply introducing two parties, or is it supplying labour for payment to work under the hirer's supervision and direction?
Commercial wording does not settle that question. Who selects the worker? Who sets the shift? Who gives daily instructions? Who arranges a replacement? Who handles payment? The answers reveal more than the label printed in platform terms.
The Amsterdam Court of Appeal brought the same practical focus to its Temper judgment of 16 June 2026, ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2026:1612. The court held that workers using Temper's specific model were temporary agency workers.
That ruling concerned Temper's own model. Its business lesson is broader: the working arrangement deserves at least as much attention as the digital description around it. A marketplace label does not decide responsibility under the Wav, Waadi or employment law.
Current Waadi rules require businesses supplying workers for payment to be correctly registered as a supplier in the KvK Handelsregister. The Labour Inspectorate can fine both an incorrectly registered supplier and a hirer using that supplier.
Supplier registration belongs beside price, insurance and payment terms when a business buys external labour. It is part of knowing what is being purchased, from whom and on what basis.
The next regime does not erase today's duties
The Wet toelating terbeschikkingstelling van arbeidskrachten, or Wtta, is being introduced in phases. Suppliers can enter the admission process from 1 January 2027. Enforcement of the admission requirement is scheduled from 1 January 2028.
From that enforcement date, hirers using an unauthorised supplier will also face exposure. The timetable creates a future selection point for businesses that depend on agencies and platforms. Current Wav obligations on permission to work and Waadi requirements on labour supply and supplier registration remain relevant during the transition.
For a small employer, preparation can remain modest. Make every route by which people enter the business visible, whether through direct employment, self-employment, an agency, a subcontractor or a platform. Operations and finance need the same current supplier information. Someone must know who cleared the worker before the first hour was worked.
Return to the restaurant at four in the afternoon. The manager does not need to abandon platforms. Flexible labour has real value when demand and staffing fail to line up neatly.
The harder question is whether speed has quietly replaced ownership. A platform can make a booking effortless. It cannot make the workplace irrelevant.
The strongest small businesses will keep the convenience while reserving one clear moment for verification. In a busy week, those few minutes before a shift begins may be the most valuable part of the booking.
Need a pre-start check for platform and agency workers? We can help set up a practical worker and supplier file
The data, sourcing, and analysis behind this article were conducted by Paolo Maria Pavan. AI was not used to identify sources, build the factual basis, or produce the analytical judgment contained here. AI was used only as a drafting aid. The final English text was personally reviewed, edited, and approved by Paolo Maria Pavan before publication.
