What changed in Dutch employment law in 2026
Three changes took effect at the start of 2026 and one deadline was formally pushed back. None of them touches the core of the dismissal system, but each of them shows up in payroll, in pension administration or in the budget for the year.The wage cost benefit for older employees (loonkostenvoordeel oudere werknemer) was abolished with effect from 1 January 2026. Transitional law keeps the benefit alive for employees who entered service before 1 January 2024, and that transitional entitlement runs until 1 January 2027 at the latest. Employers who built the subsidy into a business case for hiring older workers should recalculate; the other wage cost benefits, including the one for employees with an occupational disability, were not abolished.The ultimate date by which pension schemes must comply with the Wet toekomst pensioenen (Future Pensions Act) is now 1 January 2028. That extension is not a policy intention but statute: the bill extending the transition period was passed by the Tweede Kamer on 20 May 2025 and by the Eerste Kamer on 2 December 2025. The same act moves several transition dates from the statute into an order in council, so a further adjustment no longer requires a full legislative round. For employers this is a real deadline rather than a pension-fund problem: amending a pension scheme is a change to terms of employment, which normally needs the consent of the employees, the works council or the parties to the collective agreement.A change that is easy to miss because it sits in immigration rather than employment law: since 15 April 2025 the administrative penalty payment for late decisions by the IND has been abolished. An employer waiting for a residence permit for a new hire can still lodge an appeal against failure to decide, but there is no longer an automatic financial sanction running in the background. Recruitment planning for international staff has to allow for that.Finally, one structural change from a few years back still catches employers out: since 1 January 2024 the statutory minimum wage is an hourly wage. There is no longer a monthly minimum that has to be divided by a working week of 36, 38 or 40 hours, which means that a full-time employee on a 40-hour week earns more per month than one on a 36-hour week. The amount itself is set twice a year by the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment and published in the Staatscourant.Legislation adopted but not yet in force
Several employment bills have completed their parliamentary passage but await entry into force by royal decree. Until that decree is published, the old rules apply in full. Anticipating a rule that is not yet in force is a genuine risk: a clause drafted for the future regime can be void under the regime that still governs the contract.More certainty for flexible workers
The Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers has been adopted, with entry into force to be set by royal decree. Its central change is to the chain rule in article 7:668a of the Dutch Civil Code: the interruption after which a new chain of fixed-term contracts may start becomes three years, not the six months that applies today. In practice this ends the pattern of parking an employee for half a year and then starting again. The act also tightens the on-call regime by replacing zero-hour contracts with a basic contract that guarantees a minimum number of hours.Two points are often reported wrongly. The rule that an on-call employee must be called up at least four days in advance, and keeps the right to pay if the call is withdrawn later than that, is not new: it has applied since 2020 under article 7:628a of the Civil Code. And the interruption period is three years, not five. Until the royal decree, the six-month interruption and the existing on-call rules remain the applicable law.A legal presumption based on the hourly rate
The bill introducing a rebuttable presumption of an employment contract below a certain hourly rate was adopted and published in the Staatsblad on 29 June 2026, with entry into force again left to royal decree. The part of the original proposal that would have codified the criteria for distinguishing employment from self-employment did not survive the parliamentary process. Once the presumption is in force, a worker earning below the threshold can invoke it and the hirer must prove that the relationship is not an employment contract; until then the ordinary rules of evidence apply.Registration for the agency work sector
The Wet toelating terbeschikkingstelling van arbeidskrachten (Wtta) introduces an admission requirement for agencies and other businesses that second staff. The sequence is fixed: registration with the Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie Uitzendwezen runs from 1 November to 31 December 2026, the act enters into force on 1 January 2027, and enforcement starts on 1 January 2028. Hirers are affected as well, because hiring from a party that is not admitted will itself be a punishable act once enforcement begins. Businesses that hire in staff should map their suppliers well before the enforcement date.Pay transparency
The bill implementing the EU pay transparency directive was submitted to the Tweede Kamer on 21 May 2026 and has not been adopted. The transposition deadline of 7 June 2026 has therefore passed without Dutch implementation; the bill is aimed at entry into force on 1 January 2027. That does not leave employers in a vacuum. Equal pay for equal work between men and women is already binding under the Wet gelijke behandeling van mannen en vrouwen and under EU law directly, and the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights already hears complaints about unequal pay. What is not yet enforceable is the machinery of the directive: pay ranges in vacancies, the ban on asking candidates about their pay history, and the reporting and joint pay assessment obligations for larger employers.Hiring self-employed contractors: what applies now
The enforcement moratorium under the Wet DBA ended on 1 January 2025, so the tax authorities can again impose additional assessments and, where appropriate, penalties for false self-employment. The substantive test has not changed: under article 7:610 of the Civil Code an agreement is an employment contract if there is work, pay and a relationship of authority, and the Supreme Court held in its Deliveroo judgment of 24 March 2023 that this must be assessed on all the circumstances taken together, including the way the work is embedded in the organisation and whether the worker genuinely behaves as an entrepreneur. The label on the contract is not decisive.
Transparent and predictable working conditions
Since the Dutch implementation of the EU directive on transparent and predictable working conditions, four rules apply that often surprise employers who work from an older contract template. They are in force, they are mandatory, and a clause that conflicts with them is simply void.Predictable working hours
Where the working pattern is largely unpredictable, the contract has to state the reference days and hours within which the employee can be called on. Outside that window the employee may refuse the work without consequences. An employee with a contract of at least 26 weeks can also ask for more predictable hours; the employer must answer in writing and give reasons.Compulsory training is free
Training the employer is required to provide by law or by collective agreement must be offered at no cost to the employee, counted as working time, and where possible scheduled during working hours. A study costs clause covering that training is void. It concerns training on safety and working conditions and on keeping the current job, not the professional diplomas that were a condition of being hired in the first place.Ancillary activities
A blanket ban on working elsewhere is no longer enforceable. The employer may only rely on such a clause where there is an objective justification — health and safety, the working time rules, protection of confidential information or avoiding a conflict of interest — and that justification does not have to be written into the contract, but it does have to exist when the employer invokes the clause.Extended duty to inform
The employer must inform the employee about considerably more than before: the place of work or the statement that it varies, the arrangements for overtime and its pay, the procedure on termination including notice periods, the entitlement to training, and for postings abroad the country, the duration, the currency of payment and any repatriation arrangement. Most of this has to be given within one week of the first working day.What has not changed: dismissal, notice and the transition payment
The backbone of Dutch employment law is untouched by the 2026 changes, and this is where most disputes still arise. An employer cannot terminate an open-ended contract unilaterally without prior review. Dismissal for business economic reasons or after long-term incapacity for work goes to the UWV; all other grounds, including underperformance, a damaged working relationship and the cumulative ground, go to the subdistrict court. The grounds themselves are listed exhaustively in article 7:669 of the Civil Code, and the employer must also show that redeployment in a suitable alternative role is not possible within a reasonable period.Notice periods are set by article 7:672. The statutory period for the employer runs from one to four months depending on length of service, while the employee gives one month. If the contract lengthens the employee period, the employer period must be at least twice as long; a contract that gives both parties two months is therefore defective, and the clause does not bind the employee.The transition payment accrues from the first working day, which means it is due even where the contract ends during the probationary period at the employer initiative. Its maximum is set each year by the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, alongside the alternative of a gross annual salary where that is higher; do not rely on a figure quoted in an older article. Two limits are worth knowing in advance: there is no entitlement where the employee terminates without seriously culpable conduct by the employer, and in an insolvency the claim exists against an estate that is usually empty, while the UWV wage guarantee scheme covers unpaid wages and holiday pay but not the transition payment.
International employers and highly skilled migrants
For employers recruiting from abroad, the employment side and the immigration side have to be arranged together. A highly skilled migrant can only be employed by a sponsor that the IND has recognised, the salary criteria are set by the IND for each year and each age category, and the permit is tied to that employer. Ending the employment therefore has consequences for the residence right: the employee has a limited search period, and the employer has a duty to inform the IND. Our page on the highly skilled migrant procedure sets out the conditions in detail.Two further points regularly go wrong in international structures. Dutch mandatory employment law applies to work performed in the Netherlands whatever the contract says about governing law, because a choice of law cannot deprive the employee of the protection of the mandatory rules of the country where the work is habitually carried out. And the expat tax facility for incoming employees is a tax matter: the percentage and the salary norms are adjusted by the legislator, they have been reduced in recent years, and the position should be confirmed with a tax adviser rather than assumed from a recruitment brochure. On the corporate side, the interaction between employment obligations and cross-border structures is covered in our overview of international business law.What employers and employees should do now
For employers the practical agenda for the coming year is short. Check whether the pension scheme has been brought into line with the Wet toekomst pensioenen before 1 January 2028 and whether the required consent has been obtained. Map the suppliers who second staff to you and confirm that they will be registered under the Wtta in the window that opens on 1 November 2026. Review contracts with self-employed contractors against the authority test rather than against the label. Take the wage cost benefit for older employees out of the budget except where the transitional rule still applies. And read any older contract template against the four transparent working conditions rules, because a study costs clause or a blanket ancillary activities ban that was drafted before the implementation is now unenforceable.For employees the timing rules matter most. A challenge to a summary dismissal or a request for compensation must be brought within two months of the end of the contract, and that limitation period is strict: it cannot be extended by negotiation. Never sign a settlement agreement on the day it is presented; the reflection period exists so that the terms can be checked against the notice period, the transition payment and the unemployment benefit conditions.Frequently asked questions
What are the key principles of Dutch employment law?
Dutch employment law requires a written statement of the main terms, restricts dismissal to the grounds listed in article 7:669 of the Civil Code with prior review by the UWV or the subdistrict court, and gives a transition payment from the first working day.
How do expats navigate work permits and residency regulations in the Netherlands?
Expats must comply with Dutch immigration laws that categorise workers based on qualifications, requiring specific documentation and employer sponsorship. Highly skilled migrants benefit from streamlined processes, while other categories have distinct eligibility criteria.
What rights do employees have under Dutch employment law?
Employees in the Netherlands have extensive rights including protection against arbitrary dismissal, entitlement to a written employment contract, paid annual leave, and access to maternity and parental leave provisions, among other benefits.
How are international businesses affected by employment classification reforms in the Netherlands?
The reforms on flexible contracts and on the presumption of employment have been adopted but enter into force by royal decree, so the current rules still apply. What does apply now is that the enforcement moratorium on false self-employment ended on 1 January 2025.
