ARTICLE · 11 MAY 2020

The Netherlands: "NOW" Wage Subsidy Program Rules Eased

Littler Mendelson

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Last week, Dutch Minister Koolmees sent a letter to the Lower House, confirming an expansion of the temporary Emergency Bridging Measure for Job Opportunities program ("NOW").

NetherlandsEmployment and HR

Dennis Veldhuizen

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Last week, Dutch Minister Koolmees sent a letter to the Lower House, confirming an expansion of the temporary Emergency Bridging Measure for Job Opportunities program ("NOW").

Expansion

Briefly, the NOW program provides that businesses that suffer at least a 20% loss in their revenue over a three-month period will receive a subsidy of up to 90% of their wage costs, proportionate to the loss in revenue, for April, May and June.

The assumption underlying the NOW program is that for larger entities with complex legal structures and affiliates, the calculation for the 20% drop in revenue would take into account the entity as a whole. Under the existing NOW Regulation, it was not possible for each individual operating company with its own legal identity to submit a separate NOW application, based purely on the drop in revenue of that operating company.

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