Notice period (opzegtermijn)

The notice period (opzegtermijn) is the time that must elapse between giving notice and the end of the employment. It matters in every dismissal route, including a settlement agreement, because unemployment benefit only starts once the period that should have been observed has passed.

Legal basis

Article 7:672 of the Dutch Civil Code sets the statutory periods. For the employee the period is one month. For the employer it depends on length of service: one month for less than five years, two months for five to ten years, three months for ten to fifteen years, and four months for fifteen years or more.

Notice is given against the end of the calendar month unless the contract or a collective agreement provides otherwise. The employee’s period may be extended by written agreement to a maximum of six months, but then the employer’s period must be at least twice as long.

How it works in practice

Where the employer terminates after permission from the UWV, the time the procedure took may be deducted from the notice period, provided at least one month remains. In a settlement agreement no notice is formally given, but the end date should still be set as if the employer had given notice, because the UWV applies a benefit waiting period equal to the notice period that was not observed.

A party that terminates without observing the period owes the other a payment equal to the salary for the remaining part, under Article 7:672 paragraph 11. Employers sometimes prefer this route to secure an immediate departure; the payment is then simply a cost of the exit.

Where it goes wrong

The most expensive mistake in practice is the settlement agreement with an end date that is too early. The employee signs, leaves, and then discovers a benefit gap of one to four months that neither party budgeted for. Checking the correct end date takes minutes and is the single most useful thing to verify before signing.