Last winter, Computer Science student Aaron Serpilin was traveling through Sweden by himself. He worked several months to be able to afford the trip. As he found himself in the remote arctic village of Abisko, he couldn’t afford to get back to the airport. He worked for the money, but says he wasn’t paid on time. “It was annoying having to ask my family for two hundred euros to not get stuck on the North Pole”, he says.
Similarly, an UvA student treated his girlfriend to a vacation in Spain last summer. He says he was promised he’d be paid for his work on time. Instead, he had to ask his family for money and his girlfriend chipped in too.
Ghosted
Both students feel like they’ve been taken advantage of by job agency ViaOns, and they’re part of a larger group of VU and UvA students who are all trying to get paid. They used the agency because it was a convenient way to get relatively well-paying hospitality jobs. ViaOns (which means ‘through us’ in Dutch) connects workers to companies such as restaurants and bars. The wages are then supposed to go through ViaOns to the employees.
The students apparently got their money in the beginning, although there could be a few weeks between doing a shift and getting paid. But they say that at some point, the delays got worse, and the students ended up being owed large sums of money for months on end with no reliable indication of when or even if they would receive anything. “I don’t know whether they’re putting it in crypto or investing it somewhere else. It’s a mystery to me why they don’t pay their workers”, the UvA student says.
In the case of Economics and Business Economics student Martin, he says he started asking for his money after waiting for more than a month. ViaOns told him they were still waiting for the restaurant to pay for his shifts. As another month passed, Martin decided to stop working altogether until he got paid. “I was calling like twice a day saying: bro please, I need the money. I gotta pay for food and my rent.”
Martin says he was often ‘ghosted’ when asking for his money, or he would be told that they were still waiting on the restaurant. However, the restaurant assured him that his shifts had already been paid to ViaOns. He claims the agency still owes him over 1,000 euros. WhatsApp screenshots shared by the students portray a lot of one-sided communication between the students and ViaOns, with the students sending reminder after reminder that they’re waiting on pay from a long time ago.
Legal action
Serpilin worked three days per week for several months to save up for his trip to Sweden. He says he talked to ViaOns before traveling and was assured he’d get his money on time, but once in Sweden, he says he was ghosted and many of his plans were cancelled because he couldn’t pay for them.
Despite this awful experience, he continued to work with ViaOns and did receive some payments, but it would often take a long time and due to the delays he says he was essentially broke, waiting for several months of pay. He talked to friends who were in the same boat as him and found a collection agency willing to help them get the money.
Over time, the number of students trying to get their money rose to sixteen. The students found each other through their own networks, meaning they are not necessarily the only ones affected. More recently, they’re talking to a lawyer and wish to pursue a legal case, which has replaced their strategy of using a collection agency.
Societal problem
Providing the students with legal help is a bit tricky according to lawyer Dylan Schreurs, who has looked into the case and is discussing potential actions with the involved students. “I think it’s a societal problem that these are all students who really need this money, but can’t apply for [subsidized] legal aid because they’re seen as freelancers”, Schreurs explains. “They’re really falling through the cracks.”
The lawyer thinks the students have a very strong case and says that even if the restaurants did not transfer their wages, ViaOns would still be obliged to pay the students. But he also thinks the case could be larger than just getting the students their lost wages, as he believes ViaOns may be wrongfully treating people as freelancers instead of salaried employees. “That would mean they have been using very cheap labour while getting wealthy from it without contributing to our social security systems”, says Schreurs.
Taking out loans
According to an Excel file they made, the group of sixteen students is owed over 13,000 euros. Serpilin is waiting for the largest amount: nearly 4,000 euros. He says he had to take out loans to pay for groceries and rent. “There have been a lot of days that my friends go out and I either join them without getting anything, or I just don’t go because I can’t afford it.”
Most of all, he would describe the situation as embarrassing. “How do you tell your friends or family that you work three days a week, but then suddenly you need to loan money to pay for things? I work every weekend and have nothing to show for it.” Martin felt a similar embarrassment when asking his workplace on three different occasions if they’ve paid ViaOns.
Playing favourites
The three students that spoke with Ad Valvas feel like the money has been stolen from them. “It feels very intentional on their part”, says Martin. The UvA student also believes that the company plays favourites with its employees. He claims to be aware of certain people getting paid before others for the exact same shift.
If someone starts ‘being annoying’ about not getting paid in time, the UvA student says the company will toy with them and keep stringing them along. “I’ve noticed that if you’re local and you’re their friend, you’re not going to experience many problems.”
But international students who end up leaving the country may be less likely to get their money back. One of them is still owed for working on King’s Day in 2024 and has since moved to another country, the UvA student says.
Ad Valvas has been in touch with ViaOns, but ViaOns has not yet answered our questions or provided a statement. Should they still provide a response, it will be added to this article.