Do I have to pay a fee for finding a job?
The job placement agencies almost always charge a fee. You do not have to pay the fee until you have signed an employment agreement. The job placement agency must provide you with a job placement agreement that outlines how much you have to pay in fees and what the agency does for it. The law stipulates that the job placement agency may not demand more than €2,000 from you. This law only applies to the fee for the job placement itself. The additional services of the job placement agency are often subject to a separate fee.
Sometimes it looks like the job placement agencies offer all services for free, even a free language course but this can be deceptive. This is because the placement agencies prepay these benefits for you and collect the money from your employer later. Sometimes they are reimbursed by the companies, depending on the length of your employment with them, for example, through monthly instalments for the first three years of your employment. It becomes problematic if you do not stay with the company for the three years and the job placement agencies do not get their prepaid funds back. In that case, they may claim this money from you.