Working life country profile for The Netherlands
This profile describes the key characteristics of working life in the Netherlands. It aims to provide the relevant background information on the structures, institutions, actors and relevant regulations regarding working life.
This includes indicators, data and regulatory systems on the following aspects: actors and institutions, collective and individual employment relations, health and well-being, pay, working time, skills and training, and equality and non-discrimination at work. The profiles are systematically updated every two years.
‘Individual employment relations’ refers to the relationship between the individual worker and their employer. This relationship is shaped by legal regulation and by the outcomes of social partner negotiations over terms and conditions. This section looks at the start and termination of the employment relationship and entitlements and obligations in the Netherlands.
Requirements regarding an employment contract
Employers must provide employees with a written statement of the main terms of their employment contract within one month of the start of employment, and of any changes in these terms within a month of them occurring (notification of changes is not compulsory in the case of amendments to statutory provisions or collective agreements referred to in the statement or contract). The statement must provide details of (among other things):
the name and address of the employer and the employee
the place or places where the work is to be performed
the job title or a description of the type of work to be performed
the starting date of the employment
the duration of the contract if it is for a fixed term
the daily or weekly working hours
the amount of pay and when it will be paid
the duration of any probationary period
the amount of holiday allowance
any applicable pension scheme
The minimum working age is 15 (although those aged 13 and 14 may do some light tasks, under supervision). For 15- to 18-year-olds, there is stricter legislation with protective aspects (for instance, maximum working time, limited night work).
Dismissal and termination procedures
There are six basic procedures for terminating a contract of employment:
termination by mutual consent
termination during the probationary period
non-renewal of a fixed-term contract
summary dismissal for an ‘urgent’ reason
termination by a court
dismissal with official authorisation from the regional public employment office
The law relating to the termination of employment contracts underwent significant change on 1 July 2015. The key changes introduced are set out below.
If an employer and an employee agree to terminate a contract of employment by mutual consent, the employee will have two weeks in which to change their mind and withdraw their consent.
Where an employer wishes to terminate an employment contract for business or economic reasons or owing to an absence lasting longer than two years due to sickness, the employer is required to obtain permission from the regional public employment office. If the employer wishes to terminate the contract for any other reason, they are required to make an application to the civil court.
Where an employment contract is terminated by the civil court, the employee will be granted the right of appeal. The former system of redundancy payments has, to a large extent, been replaced by a new system of transition payments as of 1 July 2015.
In cases where the employer takes the initiative to end an employee’s contract, employees can receive transition compensation if they have been working for that employer for two years or more.
With the entry into force of the WAB, in January 2020 some of the rules for dismissing workers eased. Now it is possible for employers to cite a combination of reasons for dismissing a worker; this means that the employer does not need to provide evidence of one single reason but rather can cite less evidence across a series of reasons instead. The goal of this measure is making it easier to dismiss workers. Furthermore, the WAB includes changes to the transition compensation that workers receive if an employer dismisses them. Whereas transition compensation was previously built up after a given number of years for workers on permanent contracts, all workers can now receive transition compensation. This amount is proportionate to the time spent with an employer and varies depending on the individual employment situation.
Parental, maternity and partner/paternity leave
On 2 August 2022, new paid parental leave was introduced. Until a child turns 8 years old, parents have 26 weeks of parental leave. Since August 2022, parents have been able to take up 9 of these 26 weeks on a paid basis. They are compensated with 70% of their usual income. These nine weeks can only be used in the first year of the child’s life. Furthermore, since 2019, partner/paternity leave (not necessarily for fathers) has been expanded from two days to nine days. In addition, in 2020, additional partner leave was introduced, which allows partners to take up to five weeks of leave. These weeks are compensated with 70% of their normal salary.
Statutory leave arrangements
| Maternity leave | |
| Maximum duration | Mothers: 6 weeks before and 10 weeks after giving birth. Variations are possible for flexible leave after birth, allowing mothers to return to work on a part-time basis after less than 10 weeks. The duration of leave is longer for mothers in the case of multiple births. |
| Reimbursement | 100% of the maximum daily wage |
| Who pays? | The employer and the government |
| Legal basis | Act introducing extra parental leave (Wet invoering extra geboorteverlof), 1 January 2019; Civil Code, Book 7 |
| Partner/paternity leave and extended partner leave | |
| Maximum duration | Partner leave (for a person whose partner has given birth) is based on the partner’s working week. A partner gets the number of weekly working hours specified in their employment contract. For instance, if a person works five days a week, and eight hours per day, this would amount to 40 hours of partner leave. This leave must be used within four weeks of the birth of the child. As of 1 January 2019, a partner of a mother who has just given birth may take leave equivalent to their weekly contracted hours. For example, if a partner works 32 hours a week, they will receive 32 hours of partner leave (Geboorte verlof) (Rijksoverheid, 2019). For additional partner leave, partners can receive up to five weeks of leave (five times their weekly working hours). This leave has to be used within six months of a person’s partner giving birth. |
| Reimbursement | 70% of the maximum daily wage |
| Who pays? | The employer, the government and the UWV |
| Legal basis | Act introducing extra parental leave (Wet invoering extra geboorteverlof) (as of July 2020) |
| Parental leave | |
| Maximum duration | Parental leave amounts to 26 weeks until the child reaches the age of 8. Since 2022, 9 of these weeks have been compensated for with 70% of the parent’s usual income, if they are used within one year after the child’s birth. The remaining 17 weeks are unpaid and should be used within 8 years after the child’s birth. These weeks are additional to the maternal and (additional) partner leave (Rijksoverheid, 2022a). |
| Reimbursement | 70% of the maximum daily wage for 9 weeks. The other 17 weeks are unpaid. |
| Who pays? | UWV |
| Legal basis | Work and Care Act (Wet arbeid en zorg), August 2022 |
Sick leave
Employers are obliged by law to pay employees who are absent from work due to sickness 70% of their normal wage for a maximum of two years. The wage on the basis of which the 70% figure is calculated is subject to a ceiling (€205.77 per day in January 2017). During the first year of absence, the amount of sick pay must at least equal the national minimum wage. Many collective agreements provide for higher rates of sick pay, predominantly during the first year.
An employment contract or collective agreement may provide that no sick pay is payable for the first one or two days of sickness absence, although such ‘waiting days’ may not be applied to a second instance of sickness within four weeks of the first.
During longer-term periods of sickness absence, employers are obliged to make efforts to reintegrate the employee into the workplace, and the employer and employee must draw up a recovery and reintegration plan. If employees do not cooperate sufficiently with efforts aimed at getting them back to work, the employer may cease paying sick pay and, ultimately, dismiss the employee. After two years of sickness absence, the employer’s obligation to provide sick pay normally ends, and employees are assessed by the UWV to establish whether or not they are entitled to a state occupational disability benefit. If the agency decides that the employer has made insufficient efforts to reintegrate the employee, it may order the employer to continue paying sick pay for a third year.
This system has been a subject of discussion between the government and national social partners. An agreement was reached to change this system, as this approach implemented requirements that were notably difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to comply with.
In 2020, the government presented some adjustments regarding sick leave. As of September 2021, the main criteria for the UWV’s overall assessment of a person’s capacity to work and their reintegration trajectory are based on an evaluation conducted by a company physician (a medical professional who provides medical assessments for workers in the company (bedrijfsarts)). Enterprises retain the right to ask for a second opinion. The UWV then assesses the degree to which the reintegration plan aligns with the health situation of the worker in question. The idea is that this new approach offers more flexibility (Rijksoverheid, 2020a).
Retirement age
In 2013, the official retirement age (for men and women) started to gradually increase. It increased from 65 years in 2012 to 66 years in 2018, and to 66 years and 4 months in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, the retirement age increased to 66 years and 7 months. In 2024, the retirement age will be 67 years. From 2025, the retirement age will rise by 8 months, instead of 1 year, for every year added to the life expectancy. Flexible/early retirement schemes will be adjusted accordingly, with some special arrangements for employees with lower incomes (Rijksoverheid, undated-a).
