Limburg police have fined at least 30 seasonal workers who were travelling on a coach home from their jobs because they were not keeping the required 1.5 metres distance from each other.

Police say they handed out fines to everyone on the bus, which was operated by local staffing agency Cova-Job.

‘All staffing agencies have been told that they must transport their people to work in a safe manner, and that means keeping a safe distance between them,’ police said on Facebook.

Cova-Job told DutchNews.nl that the workers should have been in two coaches but that one had been forced to turn back. ‘We are checked a lot and this is the first problem we have had,’ owner Asur Ozkul said.

He said that the company would pick up the fines for the 31 workers who were on the bus.

According to local broadcaster 1Limburg, there were 39 people on the bus, each of whom were fined €390.