Zero-hours contracts in the Netherlands: what the reform changes

Zero-hours contracts in the Netherlands will disappear, but they are still lawful today. The Act providing more security for flexible workers (Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers) was adopted by the House of Representatives on 12 May 2026 and by the Senate on 7 July 2026. Until each provision enters into force by royal decree, the current rules of Book 7 of the Dutch Civil Code continue to apply in full.

The Act replaces the zero-hours and min-max contract with a bandwidth contract (bandbreedtecontract). It also extends the interval that breaks a chain of fixed-term contracts and tightens the rules for agency work. In this article we explain what changes, what already applies today and what you, as an employer in the Netherlands, can do now. For the wider framework, see our overview of Dutch employment law.

Has the Act already entered into force?

No. Parliament has adopted the Act, but it has not yet been brought into force. The Act itself provides that the date of entry into force is fixed by royal decree, and that this date may differ per provision.

The government has announced two moments. Agency workers are to receive at least equivalent employment conditions from 31 December 2026. The bandwidth contract and the amended chain rule are expected to follow on 1 January 2028. These dates depend on a royal decree that has not yet been published. Treat them as planning assumptions and check them again before you amend any contract.

Until a provision applies, current law governs. Zero-hours and min-max contracts remain lawful. The on-call rules of article 7:628a of the Dutch Civil Code apply, the chain rule of article 7:668a applies in its present form, and the current phase system for agency work continues. If you convert contracts now because you assume the new rules already apply, you are not complying early. You are agreeing to terms you do not yet have to offer, and those terms are hard to reverse.

What is the bandwidth contract that replaces zero-hours work?

Under the bandwidth contract you agree a minimum number of hours with the employee, and the maximum may be no more than 130 per cent of that minimum. With a minimum of 20 hours a week, you can therefore call the employee in for up to 26 hours. The employee may refuse work beyond the maximum without consequences. If the hours worked structurally exceed the agreed maximum, you must offer an adjusted contract.

The economic effect is that the risk of too little work moves to you as the employer. The employee is entitled to wages for the agreed minimum hours, whether or not you offer work. That is exactly the risk a zero-hours contract was designed to avoid. Flexibility remains, but only within a band you have committed to pay for.

Not every worker falls under the new model. According to the government, side jobs of people whose main activity lies elsewhere stay outside it, such as work by school pupils, students and people who have reached the state pension age (AOW). The conditions are set out in the legislation. These exceptions are narrow. Do not treat them as a general way out for seasonal staffing.

Which call-in rules already apply today?

The four-day notice rule is not part of the new Act; it has applied since 2020. Since the Balanced Labour Market Act (Wet arbeidsmarkt in balans) took effect, article 7:628a of the Dutch Civil Code requires you to call an on-call worker at least four days in advance, in writing or electronically. A worker called at shorter notice may refuse the shift. If you cancel or shorten the call within those four days, you owe wages for the hours originally called. A collective labour agreement (cao) can shorten the period, but not below 24 hours.

The same article contains an obligation that is still often overlooked. Once an on-call relationship has lasted twelve months, you must offer the worker a fixed number of hours. That number is at least the average worked over the preceding twelve months. You make the offer in writing within one month. If you do not, the worker is still entitled to wages over that average. Skipping the offer therefore does not keep your flexibility; it creates a wage claim.

The new Act changes the underlying contract, not the call-in mechanism. Informal scheduling by text message, without respecting the four-day period, already falls short of the rules. If your business relies on it, you are exposed under existing law, without waiting for the reform.

How does the chain rule change?

The threshold stays the same, but the break that resets the chain becomes much longer. Under article 7:668a of the Dutch Civil Code, a succession of fixed-term contracts turns into a permanent contract. After three fixed-term contracts, or after three years of successive fixed-term contracts, the next contract is one for an indefinite period. The Act leaves that threshold unchanged.

What changes is the interval that breaks the chain. Under current law, a break of more than six months resets the count. That has allowed the familiar pattern of letting a worker go for half a year and then starting again. The Act extends the interval to three years. In practice that ends the revolving door: after three years or three contracts, you either offer a permanent contract or genuinely part ways.

An earlier version of the bill mentioned an interruption period of five years. According to the government, the Act as adopted uses three years. That difference matters if you plan seasonal or project staffing. For seasonal work, a collective labour agreement can still allow a shorter interval. Such exceptions are applied restrictively.

What changes for agency work?

Agency workers get at least equivalent employment conditions first, and the phases become shorter. This is the part of the Act that is expected to apply earliest. Agency workers must receive a package of employment conditions that is at least equivalent to that of comparable employees of the hirer, not merely the same basic wage. The package must be comparable in total value; it does not have to be identical. This is expected from 31 December 2026, which leaves hirers and agencies little time to map the terms they will have to match.

The phase system is also compressed. The first phase, in which the agency contract can end easily through the agency clause, is shortened to 52 weeks worked. A collective labour agreement can no longer extend it. The second phase becomes two years, with a maximum of six fixed-term contracts. Together the phases may not exceed three years. After that, a contract for an indefinite period follows.

A separate statute also belongs in your planning. Under the Act on the admission of providers of labour (Wet toelating terbeschikkingstelling van arbeidskrachten, Wtta), agencies and other providers of hired staff need admission before they may make workers available. Providers can register from 1 November 2026 to 1 January 2027. The Act enters into force on 1 January 2027, and the Netherlands Labour Authority starts enforcement on 1 January 2028. The rule works in both directions: a hirer that uses a provider without admission can also be fined. So as a client company you should check the register yourself, not only rely on your suppliers.

Which financial risks do you already carry today?

The largest immediate risk for most employers comes from an existing rule, not from the reform. Under article 7:610b of the Dutch Civil Code, once an employment contract has lasted at least three months, the agreed working hours are presumed to equal the average worked over the preceding three months. You can rebut that presumption, but the burden of proof lies with you as the employer.

In practice, structurally scheduling a worker for more hours than the contract states can change the contract through this presumption. Take a worker on a twelve-hour contract who has in fact worked thirty hours a week for a quarter. That worker can claim wages over thirty hours, also in periods when you offer no work. Because the presumption looks at what actually happened, accurate and up-to-date time records are your most important defence.

What does this mean for sick pay, pension and social security?

The agreed hours also affect obligations outside the employment contract. Under article 7:629 of the Dutch Civil Code, a sick employee is entitled to at least 70 per cent of wages for up to 104 weeks, and in the first year to at least the statutory minimum wage. A collective labour agreement may provide more. If the presumption of hours has increased the contract, the wage base for sick pay increases with it.

Pension accrual usually follows the same logic, depending on the rules of the pension scheme. If contributions are calculated on the contractual hours, they are also due in periods with little work. If you move from zero-hours to bandwidth contracts, model the pension and sickness cost of the guaranteed minimum, not only the wage cost.

What should you do now as an employer?

Prepare now, but do not convert contracts early. Start with an inventory. Which contracts are zero-hours or min-max? How many hours are actually worked under each? Where does the gap between contract and reality expose your business to the presumption of hours? That analysis is useful regardless of the reform, because the risk already exists today.

Next, calculate the guaranteed minimum. For each role, establish the level of work that is truly structural and that you can pay for in quiet periods. Treat the bandwidth as a buffer, not as the plan. If the structural level is unclear, a period of accurate measurement is more useful than an assumption.

Then review the tools that will provide flexibility instead: fixed-term contracts within the new chain rule, agency work under the shorter phases and the admission requirement, and annualised hours arrangements where the legislation allows them. Also check the applicable collective labour agreement. Several of the new rules can only be adjusted by collective agreement, and your sector agreement may change before the Act does.

Finally, put the timetable in your calendar rather than in a memo. Equivalent terms for agency workers come first. The admission regime for providers of labour follows directly after. The bandwidth contract and the new chain rule come later. The royal decree sets the date for each part, and the text of that decree should guide when you amend your contracts.

Where do zero-hours contracts stand after the reform?

The direction of Dutch employment law is clear: structural work should come with structural security. The tools that let employers leave the wage risk with the worker are being withdrawn one by one. What is still open is the timing. That is where employers make costly mistakes in both directions: by converting too early, or by assuming there is more time than there is.

In summary

• The Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers has been adopted, but zero-hours and min-max contracts remain lawful until the relevant provisions enter into force by royal decree, expected on 1 January 2028.
• The bandwidth contract sets a minimum number of hours, with a maximum of 130 per cent of that minimum; you pay the minimum even when there is no work.
• The break that resets the chain of fixed-term contracts goes from six months to three years; the threshold of three contracts or three years stays.
• Agency workers are expected to receive at least equivalent employment conditions from 31 December 2026, and the Wtta admission regime applies from 1 January 2027, with enforcement from 1 January 2028.
• The four-day call-in rule, the twelve-month offer of fixed hours and the presumption of hours already apply today.

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