How to understand your employee rights in NL

Dutch employment law sets floors. An employment contract and a collective labour agreement can improve on them and cannot go below them, which means that when something feels wrong the first question is what the floor actually is. The second question, and the one this guide is really about, is who to take it to, because the Netherlands has several bodies with quite different jobs and taking a problem to the wrong one wastes months.

Find three things: your contract, your most recent payslips, and the collective labour agreement if one applies. Almost every question below is answered by comparing what you are getting to what those three documents and the statutory minimum say. Write down dates as you go, because in a dispute the timeline is usually what decides it.

These bodies do genuinely different things. Match the problem to the right one rather than starting at the top.

• You want to understand your position first

  Work in NL is a public information service with information points across the country. It states that its staff answer questions about matters such as your contract, wages, housing, healthcare, taxes and learning Dutch, that the explanation and advice are free, and that it works in several languages including English, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Bulgarian, Chinese, Ukrainian and Russian. Het Juridisch Loket publishes free legal information online for everyone; it states that people on a low income can also get personal advice from its lawyers, free, by phone or in person. It is a foundation funded by the Ministry of Justice and Security.

• You are underpaid, overworked, unsafe, or being exploited

  This is the Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie. It takes reports of underpayment, working too long, poor working conditions, and illegal work or labour exploitation, and it states that labour exploitation can be reported anonymously. It is an inspectorate rather than a body that recovers your money for you, so a report is about enforcement against the employer rather than a claim of your own.

• You are being dismissed, are long-term sick, or have lost your job

  UWV has a defined statutory role rather than a general complaints function. Rijksoverheid states that dismissal for economic reasons and dismissal after long-term incapacity for work go through UWV, while other grounds go to the subdistrict court. UWV also administers unemployment benefit and the long-term sickness assessments. It is not the place to take a dispute about your contract terms.

• You believe you have been discriminated against

  The College voor de Rechten van de Mens is the national human rights institute and gives judgments on individual discrimination complaints under equal treatment law. The procedure is free. Its judgment is not legally binding, but it is authoritative, and judgments are published in anonymised form. A union, a lawyer or the court remains available alongside it.

• You need something enforced or compensated

  That is a union, a lawyer, or the court. A union acts for its members and can negotiate and litigate; a lawyer can too, and subsidised legal aid has its own conditions rather than being available to everyone. Only a court can give you a binding order against your employer.

1. 1

   Establish your floor: the minimum wage and the collective agreement

   The statutory minimum wage is a floor and not a going rate. Since 1 January 2024 it is set as a single minimum hourly wage rather than as monthly, weekly and daily amounts, and it is indexed on 1 January and 1 July each year. A collective labour agreement can set higher pay and other terms, and where one applies it is read alongside your contract rather than instead of it. Check the current amount on the Rijksoverheid page for the year you are in rather than relying on a figure quoted elsewhere.

   Do this: Divide your gross pay by your actual hours and compare it with the current statutory minimum hourly wage, then compare both with the collective labour agreement scale.

   Documents needed

   • Your payslips
   • Your contract
   • The collective labour agreement, if one applies

   Processing time

   Amounts change on 1 January and 1 July

   Common mistake: Comparing your salary to a minimum wage figure from an earlier period. It moves twice a year.

   Official source

   Rijksoverheid · The statutory minimum wage
2. 2

   Read your payslip, and know when you are owed one

   You receive a payslip at the first salary payment, and again whenever something changes in your salary or in the deductions such as social security contributions or pension. Many employers issue one every month, which is convenient but is not itself the statutory minimum. What matters more than the frequency is that you can reconcile it: gross pay, hours, the deductions, the holiday allowance accrual and the net amount that reaches your account.

   Do this: Reconcile one payslip fully against your contract and hours, and query any line you cannot explain.

   Documents needed

   • A recent payslip
   • Your contract
   • Your bank statement for that month

   Processing time

   At the first payment, and whenever pay or deductions change

   Common mistake: Assuming Dutch law requires a fresh payslip every pay period. The obligation is triggered by the first payment and by changes.

   Official source

   Rijksoverheid · What is on my payslip
3. 3

   Check holiday and holiday allowance

   The statutory minimum holiday entitlement is four times the number of hours you work in a week, per year, which comes to four weeks. Anything above that is contractual or comes from the collective agreement. Holiday allowance is normally at least 8% of your gross annual salary. There are two real exceptions: a collective agreement can arrange that there is no separate holiday allowance provided you still receive at least 108% of the minimum wage, and where you earn more than three times the minimum wage you and your employer can agree in writing to a lower amount or to none at all.

   Do this: Check your accrued holiday hours and your holiday allowance percentage on your payslip, and if either falls short of the minimum, ask why in writing.

   Documents needed

   • Your payslip
   • Your contract
   • The collective labour agreement, if one applies

   Processing time

   Holiday allowance is usually paid once a year, commonly in May

   Common mistake: Reading 8% as a universal guarantee. Both exceptions are real, and the second one only applies where you earn more than three times the minimum wage and it is agreed in writing.

   Official source

   Rijksoverheid · How much holiday allowance is due
4. 4

   Know what happens when you are ill

   Your employer continues to pay you for a maximum of 2 years, which is the 104 week system. In the first year you receive at least 70% of your salary and at least the statutory minimum wage. In the second year the 70% floor stays but the employer no longer has to top it up to the minimum wage. A contract or collective agreement can be more generous. The medical side belongs to the company doctor (bedrijfsarts): the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens states that an employer may not ask for or record data about the nature and cause of an illness, and that what the occupational health service passes on is the expected duration and what you are able to do. Both you and the employer carry reintegration obligations across the two years.

   Do this: Report sick the way your employer's procedure requires, and take the medical detail to the company doctor rather than to your manager.

   Documents needed

   • Your contract and the sickness procedure
   • The occupational health reports
   • The reintegration plan

   Processing time

   Up to 2 years of continued payment, after which UWV assesses any incapacity benefit

   Common mistake: Volunteering your diagnosis to your manager. The employer is not entitled to record it, and it is the company doctor who assesses what you can do.

   Official source

   Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens · The role of the occupational health service or company doctor
5. 5

   Understand dismissal protection and the transition payment

   An employer cannot end a permanent contract at will. Rijksoverheid describes a preventive test in which UWV or the court assesses whether there is a reasonable ground for the dismissal and whether redeployment is still possible. Dismissal for economic reasons and dismissal after long-term incapacity go through UWV; other grounds, including poor performance, culpable conduct and a disrupted working relationship, go to the subdistrict court. You can also end the contract by mutual agreement, which must be in writing, and you then have a reflection period of 14 days in which you can withdraw in writing, extended to 21 days where the employer did not mention it. Permanent and temporary employees receive a transition payment on dismissal, which since 1 January 2020 accrues from the first day of the contract at a third of a month's salary per full year of service.

   Do this: If dismissal is raised, identify which route your employer is using, and do not sign a termination agreement in the meeting it is handed to you in.

   Documents needed

   • The dismissal letter or draft termination agreement
   • Your contract
   • Your payslips, for the salary the payment is calculated on

   Processing time

   14 days of reflection after signing a termination agreement, or 21 days where it was not mentioned

   Common mistake: Believing the transition payment needs a minimum period of service. The old ten month style threshold is not the current rule: entitlement runs from the first day.

   Official source

   Rijksoverheid · Dismissal law: the preventive test, the routes and the reflection period
6. 6

   Take the problem to the body that handles it

   Match the problem to the body. Work in NL gives free explanation and advice on contracts, wages, housing, healthcare, taxes and learning Dutch, at information points across the country and in several languages. Het Juridisch Loket publishes free legal information online for everyone and gives free personal advice from its lawyers to people on a low income. The Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie takes reports of underpayment, working too long, poor working conditions and illegal work or labour exploitation, and states that labour exploitation can be reported anonymously. UWV handles specified dismissal routes, unemployment benefit and long-term sickness, not contract disputes. The College voor de Rechten van de Mens gives free, authoritative but non-binding judgments on individual discrimination complaints.

   Do this: Pick the body whose actual remit covers your problem, and take your contract, payslips and written timeline with you.

   Documents needed

   • Your contract
   • Your payslips
   • A written timeline of what happened and when

   Processing time

   Advice can be the same week; an inspectorate or court route runs in months

   Common mistake: Sending an employment terms dispute to UWV, or expecting the Labour Inspectorate to recover your unpaid wages for you. It enforces against employers rather than pursuing your individual claim.

   Official source

   Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie · Reporting unfair, unsafe or unhealthy work, or labour exploitation
7. 7

   If you work through an agency, check the equal treatment rule

   Agency work changes who your employer is without removing your rights. Rijksoverheid states that as an agency worker you have an employment contract with the agency but work for another company, the hirer, and that the agency must treat you the same as employees in equal or equivalent positions who are employed by the company you work for. That equal treatment covers pay and other allowances, working and rest times, breaks, overtime, working on public holidays, night shifts and the length of holidays, among other terms. A collective agreement, either the agency's or the hirer's, can add terms beyond the statutory ones.

   Do this: Ask the hirer what its own staff in an equivalent role are paid and on what terms, and compare that with your agency contract.

   Documents needed

   • Your agency contract
   • Your payslips
   • The collective labour agreement that the agency applies

   Processing time

   Check it at the start of an assignment, not at the end

   Common mistake: Accepting that agency terms are inevitably worse. The equal treatment rule exists precisely to stop the same work being paid differently.

   Official source

   Rijksoverheid · The employment terms of an agency worker

• Your employment contract and any annexes
• Your payslips, and the annual statement (jaaropgave)
• The collective labour agreement that applies, if there is one
• Written records of what was said and when, including emails and messages
• Any sickness reports, occupational health reports and reintegration documents
• The dismissal letter or termination agreement, if there is one

• Work in NL states that its explanation and advice are free. Het Juridisch Loket publishes free information online for everyone, and free personal advice from its lawyers for people on a low income.
• A judgment from the College voor de Rechten van de Mens on a discrimination complaint is free.
• Reporting to the Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie is free, and reports of labour exploitation can be made anonymously.
• A lawyer charges by the hour and rates vary widely. Subsidised legal aid exists but has its own conditions, so check whether you qualify rather than assuming you do.
• Court proceedings carry court fees, and the amount depends on the claim and on your income, so check the current scale before you start.

The statutory minimum wage is set as an hourly amount and is indexed on 1 January and 1 July each year, so what counts as the floor changes twice a year. Sick pay runs for a maximum of 2 years, which is the 104 week system. The reflection period after signing a termination agreement is 14 days, and Rijksoverheid states that where the employer failed to mention it in the agreement it becomes 21 days. Dismissal routes through UWV or the subdistrict court run in months rather than weeks.

Requirements depend on your situation. Check the latest requirements with the relevant authority.

• Expecting a payslip every pay period as a legal minimum. You receive one at the first salary payment and again whenever something changes in your salary or in the deductions. Many employers issue one monthly, but monthly issuance is not itself the statutory minimum.
• Believing everyone always receives exactly 8% holiday allowance. 8% of the gross annual salary is the normal statutory minimum, but a collective labour agreement can arrange that there is no separate holiday allowance provided you still receive at least 108% of the minimum wage, and where you earn more than three times the minimum wage you and your employer can agree in writing to a lower amount or to none.
• Assuming the transition payment needs a minimum period of service. Since 1 January 2020 the entitlement runs from the first day of the employment contract, and it is calculated as a third of a month's salary per full year of service.
• Telling your manager the details of your illness. The Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens states that an employer may not ask about the nature and cause of an illness. That is the company doctor's territory, and what the employer receives is the expected duration and what you are able to do.
• Expecting the second sickness year to look like the first. In the first year you receive at least 70% of your salary and at least the statutory minimum wage; in the second year the 70% floor remains but the employer no longer has to top it up to the minimum wage.
• Signing a termination agreement on the spot. There is a reflection period of 14 days afterwards, extended to 21 days where the employer did not mention it, and using it costs you nothing.
• Taking a contract dispute to UWV. Its statutory role covers specified dismissal routes, unemployment benefit and long-term sickness, not employment terms in general.

• Compare your payslip against your contract and the collective labour agreement, and raise any difference with your employer in writing before escalating it.
• If you are a union member, use the union first, because it acts for you rather than only investigating the employer.
• If you are ill, keep the occupational health reports and the reintegration plan, since both employer and employee carry reintegration obligations across the two years.
• If your job is ending, check whether a transition payment is due and apply for unemployment benefit inside its own deadline.
• If you are an agency worker, check the equal treatment rule: your employer is the agency, but it must treat you the same as employees in equal or equivalent positions at the company you work for, on pay and other allowances among other terms.