Probation period in the Netherlands: the proeftijd rules

A probation period in the Netherlands is called a proeftijd, and its maximum length is fixed by article 7:652 of the Burgerlijk Wetboek: two months for a contract for an indefinite period or a fixed-term contract of two years or more, one month for a fixed-term contract longer than six months but shorter than two years, and none at all for a contract of six months or less. A ninety-day probation period is therefore not valid here. The clause must be agreed in writing, before the employment starts, and must be the same length for both parties.

Those rules are strict, and the consequence of getting them wrong is severe rather than partial: an invalid probation clause is void, not shortened. The employee then has full dismissal protection from the first day of the contract, and an employer who has already terminated on the strength of the clause has a serious problem. This article sets out what the law requires, how termination during the proeftijd works, and where the limits lie.

What the proeftijd is and what the law requires

The proeftijd is a period at the start of the employment relationship during which either party may end the contract with immediate effect. It exists so that both sides can find out whether the arrangement works in practice, and it is the one window in Dutch employment law in which the ordinary, and demanding, dismissal rules do not apply.

Because the exception is so far-reaching, the conditions are applied strictly. Three requirements have to be met before a probation clause has any effect at all.

It must be in writing. An oral agreement that there will be a trial period is worthless; the clause has to appear in the individual employment contract or in a collective labour agreement (CAO) that applies to the employment. It must be agreed before the employment begins. A probation clause added after the first working day cannot be relied on. And it must be of equal length for both parties: an employer cannot reserve two months for itself while giving the employee one.

Maximum probation periods in the Netherlands

The maximum probation period in the Netherlands depends on the type and duration of the contract. The table below sets out the statutory maximums.

A collective labour agreement can extend the one-month maximum in defined cases, up to two months. It cannot go beyond that, and it cannot create a probation period where the statute forbids one. If a CAO applies to your sector, check what it says before relying on the statutory default in either direction.

The period runs from the start of the employment as agreed in the contract, and it cannot be extended. Illness, holiday, unpaid leave or a slow start make no difference: the end date fixed at the outset is the end date. Once it has passed, the ordinary dismissal regime applies in full, with the employer needing either the employee’s consent, a court decision or permission from the UWV before it can terminate.

Why a ninety-day probation period is not valid here

A probation period in the Netherlands is short by international standards, and the ninety-day trial is a feature of employment systems that treat probation as a fixed onboarding window regardless of the contract. Dutch law takes a different approach: the probation period is tied to the length of the commitment the employer is making, so a short contract gets a short trial or none, and only a substantial commitment justifies the maximum of two months. The underlying idea is proportionality between the security the employee gives up and the certainty the employer receives.

The practical consequence for anyone reading a Dutch contract is that a clause reading three months, ninety days, or twelve weeks is not partially valid. It does not shrink to the lawful two months. It is void, and with it goes the employer’s right to terminate on the spot. The same applies to a one-month clause in a five-month contract, or to a clause of unequal length. Employers who use contract templates drafted for another jurisdiction produce this outcome regularly, and it is one of the most common defects we see in Dutch employment contracts.

What happens when a probation clause is void

An invalid clause is treated as though it had never been agreed. The employee is protected by the ordinary dismissal rules from the first day of the contract, and the employer that has purported to terminate during the supposed probation period has given a notice it was not entitled to give.

For the employee, the practical route is to challenge the termination. Depending on what has happened, the claim may be for annulment of the termination and continued payment of salary, or for compensation, and there are short deadlines: a claim of this kind must generally be brought within two months of the end of the employment, and the period is strict. Anyone who suspects their probation clause was invalid should take advice quickly rather than after they have found other work.

For the employer, the exposure is a continuing salary obligation for a contract that has not lawfully ended, potentially alongside compensation. It is avoided by checking three things before the contract is signed: that the contract type permits a probation period at all, that the length is within the statutory maximum for that type, and that the clause is identical for both parties. That check costs nothing and removes the great majority of the risk.

Termination during the probation period

Where the clause is valid, article 7:676 of the Civil Code allows either party to terminate the contract with immediate effect during the proeftijd. No permission from the UWV or the court is required, no notice period applies, no reason has to be given at the moment of termination, and the employment ends on the day notice is given. Notice given on a Tuesday means the employment ends that Tuesday.

The termination must fall within the probation period, not merely be communicated during it. A notice given on the last day of the proeftijd is effective; a notice given the following morning is not, and the employer is then bound by the ordinary rules. Employers who leave the decision to the final hours regularly get this wrong, and the difference between the two positions is very large.

Either party may terminate. An employee who decides the job is not right can walk away on the day, without notice and without giving a reason. It is also generally accepted that a contract can be terminated during the proeftijd before the employee has actually started work, once the contract has been concluded, although an employer who does this should expect the reasons to be scrutinised more closely.

The reason must be given in writing on request

The employer does not have to volunteer a reason, but the employee is entitled to ask for one, and the employer must then state the reason for the termination in writing. That right is worth exercising in every case. A written reason fixes the employer’s account of the decision at a point when it does not yet know whether a claim is coming, and if the stated reason later turns out to be inconsistent with the real one, or to be a prohibited ground, that document is the starting point of the claim. Our article on dismissal during the probationary period deals with the procedure in more detail.

A transition payment is still owed

One point is widely missed on both sides. Since the Wet arbeidsmarkt in balans came into force on 1 January 2020, the statutory transition payment (transitievergoeding) is owed from the first day of the employment, and there is no longer a minimum period of service. An employer that terminates during the probation period therefore owes a transition payment, calculated pro rata over the days actually worked. The sum is usually small, but the entitlement exists, it is not paid automatically, and an employee who does not claim it will not receive it. The payment is not owed where the employee is the one who terminates.

The limits: discrimination, sickness and abuse of the clause

Freedom to terminate during the proeftijd is broad but it is not unlimited. The clause suspends the dismissal procedure, not the rest of employment law.

A termination on a discriminatory ground is unlawful whether or not it takes place during a probation period. Equal treatment legislation prohibits distinctions on grounds including sex, pregnancy, race, nationality, religion, belief, political opinion, sexual orientation, marital status, age, disability or chronic illness, and working hours or type of contract. If the real reason for a probation dismissal was that the employee announced a pregnancy, disclosed a disability or objected to discriminatory conduct, the employee can challenge the termination and claim compensation. This is where the written reason obtained from the employer does its work.

The same applies to a dismissal that is in truth a reprisal, for example against an employee who reported a health and safety problem or made a protected disclosure. And although the ordinary prohibitions on dismissal do not apply during the proeftijd, an employer that uses the clause for a purpose entirely unconnected with assessing the employee is open to the argument that it has misused the power.

Sickness during the probation period

The special dismissal prohibition that protects a sick employee does not apply during the proeftijd. An employer may therefore terminate an employee who is on sick leave during the probation period. That is the practical answer, and it surprises people who have read about the two years of protection that Dutch law ordinarily gives a sick employee.

The qualification matters as much as the rule. The termination may not be because of the illness itself, and where the illness amounts to a disability or chronic condition the equal treatment rules bite directly. In practice the distinction turns on what the employer can show about its assessment of the employee before the illness arose, which is another reason for employers to document performance from the first week. Falling ill also does not pause or extend the probation period. Our guide to employee sickness rights in the Netherlands sets out the protections that apply once the proeftijd has ended.

Successive contracts, agency work and promotion

A probation period is a one-off. The law prevents an employer from restarting it with each new contract, because that would allow an employee to be kept indefinitely outside the protection the dismissal rules provide.

A probation clause in a follow-on contract with the same employer is therefore void, unless the new contract clearly requires different skills or responsibilities from the previous one. A renewal of the same job on the same terms cannot carry a new proeftijd, and neither can a contract with a title change that does not alter what the employee actually does. Where a genuinely different role is involved, such as a move from an operational post to one carrying budget and staff responsibility, a fresh assessment is justified and a new probation period is permitted.

The rule also follows the work rather than the employer’s identity. Where an employee has been performing the same work through a temporary employment agency and is then engaged directly by the hirer, or where the business is transferred to a new employer, a new probation clause is void: the employee has already been assessed in that job. The same applies within a group of companies where the employee moves between entities but continues to do the same work.

For employers this is a common and expensive mistake, because the defect only becomes visible at the moment the clause is relied on. Before inserting a probation clause into a second or third contract, ask whether an outsider would say the new role calls for skills and responsibilities the previous one did not. If the answer is not obviously yes, leave the clause out.

What still applies during the probation period

A probation period in the Netherlands changes only one thing: how the contract can be brought to an end. A probationary employee is an employee. The proeftijd affects how the contract can be ended and nothing else, so the ordinary terms and statutory entitlements run from day one.

That means the agreed salary is payable in full for every hour worked, including any allowances and any minimum set by the applicable CAO. Holiday entitlement accrues from the first day and any accrued but untaken days must be paid out on termination. The employer’s duty of care for a safe and healthy working environment applies without qualification. Pension participation, where the scheme provides for it, and the employer’s obligations on working time, rest periods and equal treatment all apply in the ordinary way. If the employee falls ill, the statutory obligation to continue paying salary during sickness applies for as long as the contract lasts.

Contractual clauses cut both ways. A confidentiality clause, an intellectual property clause and a non-solicitation clause bind the employee from the start. A non-competition clause requires particular attention: in a fixed-term contract it is valid only if the employer sets out in writing the compelling business interests that make it necessary, and a clause agreed without that reasoning can be set aside. An employee leaving during a probation period should check what has been agreed before starting somewhere else in the same market.

What protection begins when the probation period ends

The proeftijd is worth understanding mainly because of what sits on the other side of it. Dutch dismissal law is closed rather than open: once the probation period has passed, an employer cannot simply give notice. It needs one of three routes.

The first is the employee’s own consent, in practice recorded in a vaststellingsovereenkomst (settlement agreement), which is how the large majority of Dutch employment relationships are ended. The second is permission from the UWV, which is the route for dismissals on business-economic grounds, including reorganisation and the closure of a business, and for dismissal after long-term incapacity for work. The third is a decision of the subdistrict court (kantonrechter), which is the route for personal grounds such as underperformance, a damaged working relationship, culpable conduct or a refusal to perform work on grounds of conscience.

Each of those routes requires a reasonable ground that is set out in the statute and, importantly, a file to support it. For underperformance, an employer must show not only that the employee fell short but that the employee was told so in time, was given a genuine opportunity to improve with support, and that redeployment within the organisation was considered. Assembling that file takes months. Notice periods then apply on top, running from one to four months depending on length of service unless the CAO or the contract provides otherwise, and the transition payment is owed.

Set against that, the significance of the two-month proeftijd becomes obvious. It is the only moment at which an employer can end a Dutch employment relationship on the day, for its own reasons, at almost no cost. That is exactly why the conditions for a valid probation clause are enforced as strictly as they are, and why an employer that gets the drafting wrong finds itself with no fallback.

The probation period and the chain of fixed-term contracts

The probation period should also be read alongside the chain rule (ketenregeling), which converts a series of fixed-term contracts into a contract for an indefinite period once the series exceeds the statutory number of contracts or the statutory period, counting contracts that follow one another within a defined interval. The two rules pull in the same direction: a probation clause cannot be renewed with each contract, and the contracts themselves cannot be renewed indefinitely.

This is why the shape of the first contract matters more than it appears to. An employer that offers a seven-month first contract can agree a one-month probation period; one that offers six months cannot agree any probation period at all. An employer that offers two consecutive six-month contracts gets no probation period on either, and has moved two steps along the chain. Deciding the length of the first contract with the probation rules and the chain rule in view is a small piece of planning that saves a great deal of difficulty later.

Unemployment benefit after a probation dismissal

An employee whose contract is ended by the employer during the probation period is not normally regarded as being at fault for the unemployment, so a claim for unemployment benefit (WW) is in principle open. Whether it succeeds depends on the ordinary conditions the UWV applies, in particular the requirement to have worked a minimum number of weeks in the period before becoming unemployed. Earlier employment counts towards that requirement, so a short spell that ended in a probation dismissal does not by itself disqualify someone who has a working history behind them.

Resignation is treated differently. An employee who terminates the contract during the proeftijd has, from the UWV’s point of view, ended the employment voluntarily, and that ordinarily means no entitlement to benefit. There are exceptions where continuing could not reasonably be expected, but they are narrow and have to be substantiated. Anyone considering walking away from a new job during the probation period, without another position to go to, should check their benefit position with the UWV before giving notice rather than after.

Where the employer proposes a termination by mutual consent during the probation period rather than a straightforward notice, look closely at how the agreement describes the initiative and the reason. A settlement agreement that reads as though the employee wanted to leave can affect the benefit assessment, and it is easier to correct the wording before signing than to explain it afterwards.

Practical guidance

For an employee, the useful work happens before signing. Read the probation clause against the table above and confirm that it is permitted for the contract you are being offered, that its length is lawful and that it applies equally to both parties. Check whether a CAO applies and what it says. Note the exact end date of the proeftijd in your own calendar, because after that date your position changes fundamentally.

Once you have started, ask for clear expectations in the first week and for feedback at intervals, and keep your own record of what was agreed and what you delivered. If the relationship ends, ask for the reason in writing on the day, before emotions and memories have moved on, and take advice quickly if the stated reason does not match what you were told or if you believe the real ground was a prohibited one.

For an employer, the discipline is much the same in reverse. Use a contract template that has been drafted for Dutch law, and check the probation clause against the contract type every time rather than copying it forward. Do not insert a probation clause in a renewal without asking whether the role has genuinely changed. Manage the period actively, with a proper introduction, stated objectives and recorded feedback, because a decision taken on the basis of a documented assessment is defensible and one taken on impression is not.

If you decide to terminate, do it inside the period rather than on its final margin, confirm the termination in writing that day, be ready to state the reason in writing if asked, and settle the final payments including accrued holiday and the transition payment. An orderly exit costs a fraction of a disputed one.

Frequently asked questions about the Dutch probation period

Can a probation period be extended?

No. The proeftijd cannot be extended, by agreement or otherwise, and it is not suspended by sickness, holiday or leave. The end date agreed in writing at the outset is final, and once it has passed the employee has full dismissal protection.

What if my contract does not mention a probation period?

Then there is none. A probation period is not a default feature of Dutch employment; it exists only if it has been agreed in writing and meets the statutory conditions. Without a valid clause you are protected by the ordinary dismissal rules from your first day.

Do I have to give a reason for resigning during the probation period?

No. An employee may terminate during the proeftijd with immediate effect, without notice and without giving a reason. The employer’s obligation to state its reasons in writing on request applies to a termination by the employer, not to a resignation.

Is an oral agreement about probation enough?

No. The clause has to be in writing, in the employment contract or in an applicable collective labour agreement, and it has to be agreed before the employment starts. A conversation at the interview about a trial period has no legal effect.

Does a probation period apply to an on-call or zero-hours contract?

The same rules apply. What matters is the type and duration of the contract, not how the hours are arranged, so a call-off contract of six months or less cannot carry a probation period either.

Law and More advises employees and employers in the Netherlands on employment contracts and on dismissal, including the validity of probation clauses, terminations during the proeftijd, discrimination claims and the settlement of final entitlements. If you have been dismissed during a probation period, or you want your contracts checked before they are issued, our employment lawyers will be glad to review your position with you. Please contact us to discuss your situation.