Dutch employment contracts and what you are entitled to

Dutch employment law is written from the assumption that the employee is the weaker party, and it compensates accordingly.

Most of what protects you is not in your contract at all.

It is in the Burgerlijk Wetboek and in the collective agreement covering your sector, and it applies whether or not the document you signed mentions it.

That is the single most useful thing to understand before reading a Dutch offer.

A short, unimpressive contract is not necessarily a bad one, because the floor underneath it is high.

The contract types

A contract voor onbepaalde tijd is permanent, with no end date.

A contract voor bepaalde tijd is fixed-term and ends on its own date.

Beyond those two sit call-off contracts, where hours are not guaranteed, agency contracts, where your legal employer is the uitzendbureau rather than the company you work at, and payroll constructions.

Which one you have determines almost everything downstream, and it is worth checking the first line of the document rather than assuming from the conversation.

A mortgage lender, a landlord and the IND all treat a permanent contract differently from a fixed-term one.

The probation period, and the trap in it

A proeftijd is never longer than two months, and how long it may be depends on the contract.

No probation period at all is permitted in a temporary contract of six months or shorter.

A contract of at least six months and one day, but under two years, allows a maximum of one month.

A contract of two years or more, and a permanent contract, allows two months.

It must be in writing.

Inside it, the relationship is almost unprotected.

Either side can end the contract immediately.

There is no preventive test by UWV or the subdistrict court, no notice period, no requirement to look for another role internally, and dismissal is permitted even if you have fallen ill.

The one obligation is that whoever gives notice must state the reason in writing if the other asks.

The trap is at the other end.

Resigning during your probation means you have ended the contract yourself, and unemployment benefit is not available to someone who did that.

The chain rule, which is how temporary becomes permanent

The ketenregeling is often summarised as three by three by six.

More than three consecutive temporary contracts, or a total duration of more than three years, converts the relationship into a permanent one by operation of law.

Gaps of six months or less between contracts do not break the chain and count towards the three years; a gap of more than six months resets the count to zero.

This is why a fourth renewal often never arrives, and why some employers engineer a seven-month break.

Legislation in preparation, the Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers, would extend that break period from six months to three years, with 1 January 2028 named as the intended start date.

It is not in force, and until it is, the six-month rule is the one that applies.

Notice periods

On a permanent contract, an employee’s notice is one month unless the contract says otherwise, and it may never exceed six months.

If your notice is longer than a month, the employer’s must be twice as long as yours.

The employer’s statutory notice depends on how long you have been there: under five years, one month; five to ten years, two months; ten to fifteen years, three months; fifteen years or more, four months.

Past AOW age the employer’s notice drops to one month.

Notice normally runs to the end of a calendar month, which is why Dutch resignations tend to be handed in at the end of one month rather than the middle of the next.

You cannot simply be fired

Outside probation, an employer needs permission before terminating.

Dismissal for economic reasons or after long-term illness goes through UWV.

Dismissal on personal grounds, such as performance or a broken working relationship, goes to the kantonrechter.

Instant dismissal for urgent cause exists but is rare and heavily litigated.

Most terminations therefore happen by agreement, through a vaststellingsovereenkomst.

Sign one and you have two weeks, under article 7:670b of the Civil Code, to change your mind in writing without giving any reason.

If the employer failed to mention that right in the agreement, the period is three weeks.

Only one such withdrawal is permitted in any six months.

Never sign a settlement agreement the day it is put in front of you.

The two weeks exist precisely because these documents are presented at the worst possible moment, and the wording about who took the initiative directly affects your unemployment benefit.

The transition payment

A transitievergoeding is due whenever the employer ends the relationship or declines to renew a temporary contract, and entitlement starts on the first day of employment, including during probation.

The calculation is one third of a month’s salary per full year of service, with a pro-rata formula for the remaining part.

From 1 January 2026 the payment is capped at 102,000 euro gross, or at one gross annual salary where that is higher.

It is not conditional on how long you worked, only on who ended it.

An employee who resigns gets nothing.

Holiday, and the deadline nobody mentions

The statutory minimum is four times your weekly hours, so a five-day week gives 20 days a year.

Many contracts and collective agreements add more, and those extra days are bovenwettelijk and follow different rules.

Statutory days expire six months after the end of the year in which they were accrued: days built up in 2026 have to be taken by 1 July 2027 or they are gone.

The extra contractual days generally survive for five years.

Most people with a large balance are carrying the wrong kind and lose them.

Holiday pay is separate from holiday days.

You are entitled to at least 8% of your gross annual salary as vakantiegeld, normally accrued from June to May and paid out by the end of May.

It arrives looking thin because lump sums are taxed under the special rate table, and the annual tax return reconciles it.

Illness

The protection here is unusual by international standards.

An employer must continue paying at least 70% of gross salary for up to 104 weeks of illness, and during the first year must top that up to the statutory minimum wage if 70% falls below it.

The top-up obligation ends in the second year.

Payment is capped at 70% of the maximum daily wage, and pension contributions and holiday pay continue.

Most collective agreements improve on this, commonly to 100% in the first year.

Both sides also carry active reintegration duties, and an employee who does not cooperate with them can lose the payment.

From 1 July 2026 the statutory minimum wage is 14.99 euro an hour for workers of 21 and over, having been 14.71 euro from 1 January 2026, and the reference monthly wage used to index various benefits is 2,337.00 euro gross.

The CAO, which may matter more than your contract

A collective labour agreement, a CAO, is negotiated between unions and employers for a whole sector or a large company, and where one applies it overrides less favourable individual terms.

It will usually set the pay scales, the pension scheme, additional holiday, sick pay top-ups and notice periods.

Ask which CAO applies to you before you negotiate anything, because half of what you might try to negotiate may already be fixed and the other half may already be better than you thought.

Agency workers have their own: a new CAO voor Uitzendkrachten runs from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028, and for the first time gives agency workers a right to equivalent terms and conditions with the client’s own employees.

What that means in practice is in how recruiters and agencies operate here.

What to check before you sign

Whether the contract is fixed-term or permanent, and if fixed-term, whether it is a first, second or third link in the chain.

Whether the probation clause is legally possible for that duration.

Which CAO applies.

The notice period on both sides, and whether yours has been extended without the employer’s being doubled.

Any non-compete clause, which in a fixed-term contract is only valid if the employer has written down why it is necessary.

The pension arrangement, which is covered in Dutch pensions for internationals.

And whether the salary meets the threshold your residence permit depends on, because for a kennismigrant that number is the permit, as set out in finding work in The Hague.

If the 30% ruling is part of the offer, check whether the contract makes it a condition or merely mentions it; the difference decides who carries the loss if the ruling is refused.

The mechanics are in the 30% ruling.

Two categories of employer sit outside all of this.

International organisations apply their own staff regulations rather than Dutch law, described in the international organisations, and diplomatic missions occupy a hybrid position covered in embassies and diplomatic employment.

And if you are working for yourself rather than for anyone, none of this applies at all, which is the point of going zzp.

For anything contested, a union will advise members and employment lawyers in The Hague will review a settlement agreement quickly and cheaply relative to what is usually at stake.

Do it inside the two weeks.

Sources

• Rijksoverheid, regels bij een proeftijd and hoelang duurt een proeftijd: never longer than two months, none permitted in a contract of six months or shorter, one month for contracts of at least six months and one day up to two years, two months for contracts of two years or more and permanent contracts, must be recorded in writing, no UWV or court test and no notice period during it, dismissal possible during illness, and a written reason on request
• Rijksoverheid and FNV on the ketenregeling: more than three consecutive temporary contracts or more than three years in total creates a permanent contract, gaps of six months or less count within the chain, a longer gap restarts it; the Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers would extend the break to three years with 1 January 2028 named as the intended start date
• Rijksoverheid, opzegtermijn bij ontslag: employee notice of one month on a permanent contract, never more than six months, employer’s notice twice the employee’s where the employee’s exceeds one month, and employer notice of one month under five years’ service, two months from five to ten, three from ten to fifteen and four at fifteen years or more, reduced to one month past AOW age
• Rijksoverheid, hoe hoog is de transitievergoeding: one third of a month’s salary per full year from the first working day including probation, a pro-rata formula for the remaining period, and a maximum of 102,000 euro gross from 1 January 2026 or one gross annual salary if higher
• Burgerlijk Wetboek article 7:670b: a written termination agreement may be dissolved by the employee without reasons within fourteen days, extended to three weeks if the employer did not point out the right, and only once in any six months
• Dutch holiday legislation: a statutory minimum of four times the weekly working hours, statutory days expiring six months after the year of accrual, and a five-year limitation on contractual days above the minimum
• Rijksoverheid, vakantiegeld: at least 8% of gross annual salary, normally accrued June to May and paid by the end of May
• UWV, loondoorbetaling tijdens ziekte: at least 70% of gross salary for up to 104 weeks, topped up to the minimum wage in the first year only, capped at 70% of the maximum daily wage, with pension contributions and holiday pay continuing, and WIA after two years
• Rijksoverheid, bedragen minimumloon 2026: 14.99 euro an hour from 1 July 2026, 14.71 euro from 1 January 2026, and a reference monthly wage of 2,337.00 euro
• ABU, CAO voor Uitzendkrachten 2026 to 2028: in force from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028, giving agency workers a right to equivalent terms and conditions for the first time