Chief Executive of Dutch staffing agency Otto Workforce Frank van Gool has called on the Dutch government to bring back licencing, saying that self-regulation has failed, reports DutchNews.nl. Van Gool added that exploitation and abuse have become the order of the day adding that there have been dozens of stories in the media recently about workers, particularly from eastern Europe, being underpaid and exploited by staffing agencies, many of which appear and disappear overnight. The Netherlands, van Gool points out, is the only EU country where people can start a staffing agency without a permit. According to van Gool there are 14,200 agencies on the official register in the country, compared with 1,700 in neighbouring Belgium. “And we are not even talking about the little companies that just appear and the large scale tax avoidance. We are talking about millions of euros,” van Gool said. Last week, the government said the way in which migrant workers are being exploited by some employers and staffing agencies in the Netherlands is unacceptable and damaging the country’s reputation. The government now plans to include tougher checks on staffing agencies, information in countries of origin about worker rights and better registration systems for migrant workers.