For every hour worked, Postillion will transfer 2.50 euros to DUO, the agency that manages student loans

Hotel chain Postillion has implemented a new strategy to attract workers in the Netherlands’ tight labor market. The hotel chain will help employees pay off their study debts. For every hour worked, Postillion will transfer 2.50 euros to DUO, the agency that manages student loans, AD reports.

Erik-Jan Gijnaar, general director of the eight-location hotel chain, asked students from the Hotel Management School in Maastricht to make recommendations for improving Postillion’s secondary employment conditions. “They made it clear that the group of 18 to 26-year-olds is very concerned about their study debt,” he said to the newspaper. “It makes it more difficult to get a mortgage for a home, for example.”

Therefore, Postillion concluded that help paying off student loans could be an attractive employment condition. About 15 employees are already using the scheme, Gijnaar said. “In the case of full-time employment, we repay 5,000 euros per year. We transfer it directly to DUO, stating the employee’s citizen registration number. We do not want to use this as a disguised salary increase.”

Postillion is also working on better conditions for employees without student debt. “We are now going through the pension schemes for them again,” Ginjaar said.

The hotel chain currently employs about 325 people and is looking for another 50 employees across the company.