Troubled chip maker NXP has been turned down for state help under the temporary lay-off scheme, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Monday.

NXP chairman Frans van Houten tells that paper that NXP does not qualify because it also booked a sharp downturn in sales this time last year.
To qualify for the scheme – known as the wtv – companies must be able to show that they have lost at least 30% of their turnover over two months because of the credit crisis.
The scheme allows companies to place their workers on unemployment benefit for a six week period without having to sack them. The companies themselves top up wages to 100%. The six week period can be extended up to a total of 24 weeks.
FNV union official Ron van Baden told the FD that the government should make the ruling more flexible. ‘The fact that NXP cannot take part shows how ridiculous the ministry’s ruling is,’ he told the paper.
NXP, a former subsidiary of electronics giant Philips, said in September that it is to scrap 4,500 jobs worldwide, 15% of its total workforce. Some 1,300 jobs will be axed in the Netherlands over the coming two years.