The first Dutch company has said it requires all its staff to be fully vaccinated and to return to the office.

The Financieele Dagblad reports on Monday that LeasePlan car rental company, which is based in Almere, wants office-based staff to return, fully jabbed.

Although it does not intend to check whether staff have had a vaccination it has reportedly told workers that hybrid working will end and ‘the new normal is back to the old normal’.

However, legal experts told the FD that it could be on slippery legal ground. ‘It is forbidden in the Netherlands to tell an employee that they must be vaccinated, even indirectly,’ senior employment lawyer Pascal Besselink of DAS told the FD. ‘Also, by assuming that employees will be honest about whether or not they are vaccinated could put other people in jeopardy.’

The FNV union has criticised the decision, telling the paper that employers should not exploit their position of power by trying to enforce vaccinations.

LeasePlan, which operates in 30 countries and has some 8,000 staff worldwide, has a team of around 1,000 in the Netherlands. It reportedly believes office work will again promote a ‘feeling of togetherness,’ cites the FD.

DutchNews.nl has contacted LeasePlan for a comment.