Four-day working week in the Netherlands: what the law says

Dutch law does not give you a right to a four-day working week, and no employer is obliged to introduce one. What you do have, after 26 weeks of service, is a statutory right to ask for fewer hours or a different schedule, and an employer with ten or more employees may only refuse if weighty business interests stand in the way.

That right comes from the Flexible Working Act (Wet flexibel werken, Wfw). It turns a request for a shorter week from a favour into a formal procedure with fixed deadlines. Below we explain how the procedure works, when an employer may say no, what changes in your contract, pay and leave, and how a business can test a four-day week without taking legal risks.

Is a four-day working week a legal right in the Netherlands?

No. No statute entitles you to work four days, and no statute obliges a business to offer it. The law regulates the request, not the outcome.

Under Article 2 of the Flexible Working Act, you may ask your employer to change three things: your working hours (arbeidsduur), your working schedule (arbeidstijd) and your place of work (arbeidsplaats). A four-day week is simply one possible result of such a request. Your employer must consider it seriously and, for hours and schedule, can in most cases only refuse for a weighty reason.

In practice a four-day week takes one of two forms. Each form has very different consequences for pay, leave and planning. It therefore helps to be clear from the start which one you are asking for.

Compressed hours or reduced hours?

With a compressed week you keep your contractual hours but spread them over four days. Someone on a 40-hour contract then works four days of ten hours. Salary, holiday allowance and pension accrual stay the same, because the number of hours does not change. Legally, this is a request to change your working schedule.

With reduced hours you work fewer hours in total, for example 32 instead of 40, spread over four days of eight hours. You then become a part-time employee. Salary, holiday entitlement and pension accrual fall in proportion. Legally, this is a request to change your working hours.

The Netherlands already has one of the shortest average working weeks in the European Union, largely because part-time work is common and widely accepted. That culture explains why many Dutch employers are used to receiving these requests. It does not change the legal test, which is the same for every employer that falls under the Act.

How does a request under the Flexible Working Act work?

You submit a written request at least two months before the change should take effect, and your employer must decide in writing no later than one month before that date. If the employer misses that deadline, your working hours or schedule change automatically as you requested.

Who can make a request?

You can use the Act if, on the date the change is meant to start, you have been employed by the same employer for at least 26 weeks. Permanent contracts, fixed-term contracts and part-time contracts all qualify. If you have worked under several successive contracts with the same employer, those periods count together.

The size of the business matters. The full procedure, including the test of weighty interests, applies to employers with ten or more employees. An employer with fewer than ten employees does not have to follow that procedure, but it must have its own arrangement for employees who want to change their working hours. A collective labour agreement (cao) may also contain its own rules on changing hours, which then apply instead of the statutory procedure.

What must your request contain?

Your request must be in writing. An email is usually sufficient, as long as you can show it was sent and received. State the date on which you want the change to start and the extent of the change. If you ask for fewer hours, also state how you would like the new hours spread over the week.

A precise request prevents discussion later. An employee who writes that she would like to work 32 hours from 1 March, Monday to Thursday, leaves no doubt about what the employer must decide on. A wish mentioned in passing during an appraisal interview is not a request under the Act, and the statutory deadlines do not start to run.

What happens after you submit it?

Your employer must consult you about the request before deciding. The decision must be in writing, and a refusal must state the reasons.

The key deadline is one month before the intended start date. If you ask on 1 January for a change from 1 March, your employer must decide by 1 February at the latest. If no written decision arrives in time, the Act treats your request as granted: your hours or schedule change exactly as you asked. This automatic approval applies to requests about working hours and working schedule, not to requests about place of work.

For employers, this deadline is the part of the Act that causes most problems in practice. A request that sits unanswered in a manager’s inbox can lead to a four-day week that no one in the business has actually approved. Record the date of receipt as soon as a request comes in, and calculate the decision deadline immediately.

What about a request to work from home?

A request to change your place of work, for example to work from home one day a week, follows a lighter regime. Your employer must consider the request and consult you if it intends to refuse. It must explain a refusal in writing, but it does not need weighty business interests to say no.

This matters when a four-day week is combined with other wishes. An employee who asks for four days of eight hours, two of them at home, is making two requests at once, each with its own test. It is often wise to ask for them separately, so a refusal of one does not affect the other.

When can your employer refuse a four-day week?

An employer with ten or more employees must grant a request to change your hours or schedule unless weighty business or service interests (zwaarwegende bedrijfs- of dienstbelangen) stand in the way. Inconvenience, or a general preference for five-day weeks, is not enough.

The Act itself gives examples. For a reduction in hours, weighty interests exist in any event if the change would cause serious problems in reallocating the hours that become available, in the area of safety, or in scheduling. For a change of schedule, comparable serious problems in the areas of safety, scheduling or the organisation of the work may count.

The burden is on the employer. It must explain concretely why your request cannot be accommodated, preferably with rosters, workload figures or evidence of failed recruitment. A refusal that only says that the request is not possible in your role is unlikely to hold if you take the matter further.

Context matters. A small restaurant whose only chef wants to compress his hours into four days may be able to show that the kitchen would be unstaffed during busy lunch service. A large software company will find it much harder to show that one developer working four days instead of five causes serious problems for the business.

Can your employer offer an alternative?

Yes. Consultation often ends in a compromise, such as a four-day week with a different day off, or 34 hours instead of 32. If your employer agrees to fewer hours, it must in principle spread those hours in line with your wishes. It may only depart from them if, by standards of reasonableness and fairness, your wishes must give way to its interests.

An employee who asks for Fridays off may, for example, be offered Wednesdays because the team already has three colleagues who are off on Fridays. That is a legitimate outcome, provided the employer can explain it. Put any compromise in writing, including the start date, so both sides know exactly what has been agreed.

How should an employer handle a request?

Confirm receipt, calculate the deadline, consult the employee, assess the request against the statutory test and send a reasoned written decision in good time. If you grant the request, amend the contract.

In practice, the following steps work well:

• Confirm receipt in writing and note the intended start date. The decision deadline is one month before that date.
• Invite the employee for a consultation. This is a statutory duty, not a courtesy. Listen to the reasons and discuss the impact on the team, clients and operations.
• Assess the request objectively. Can the work be done in four days? Can the hours that become free be reallocated? Record your assessment.
• Decide: grant the request, grant it with a different spread of hours, or refuse it. A refusal needs weighty interests that you can substantiate.
• Send the written decision in time. If you miss the deadline, the request is granted automatically.
• If the request is granted, amend the employment contract: new hours, working days, start date and the pro rata effect on salary, leave and benefits.

A transparent process builds trust, even when the answer is no. It also protects the employer: a well-documented assessment is the best evidence if the employee later asks the court to review the refusal.

What are your rights if your request is refused?

You cannot be dismissed for making a request under the Flexible Working Act, and you can ask the subdistrict court (kantonrechter) to review a refusal. There is no separate statutory appeal procedure; whether an internal complaints procedure exists depends on your employer or cao.

Article 7:670 of the Dutch Civil Code (BW) prohibits an employer from giving notice because an employee has exercised the right to request a change in working hours, schedule or place of work. Other disadvantages because of a request, such as being passed over for a project, can be challenged as a breach of the duty to act as a good employer (goed werkgeverschap, Article 7:611 BW).

If your employer refuses, first read the reasons carefully. A follow-up conversation with a concrete proposal that meets the employer’s objection often achieves more than a legal dispute. You could offer a different day off, a trial period or a phased reduction.

If that does not work, you can bring the matter before the subdistrict court. The court assesses whether the employer’s interests are really weighty enough to refuse. If they are not, the court can decide that your hours or schedule are changed as requested. Courts look closely at whether the employer has substantiated its objections with facts, rather than general concerns.

When can you ask again?

After your employer has granted or refused a request, you can in principle submit a new request one year later. This also applies if you want to return from four days to five.

Keep that in mind before you switch. A permanent change under the Act is harder to reverse than a temporary agreement. If you are not sure the four-day week will suit you, propose a trial period with a fixed end date first.

What changes in your contract when you move to four days?

With reduced hours, your salary, holiday entitlement and most other benefits fall in proportion to your hours. With a compressed week they stay the same, but the way leave and public holidays are counted changes.

Whichever model you choose, record the change in writing, for example in a signed addendum to the employment contract. State the new number of hours, the working days, the start date and whether the change is permanent or temporary.

Reduced hours: pro rata, with equal treatment

Under Article 7:648 BW, an employer may not treat you differently because you work fewer hours, unless there is an objective justification. Part-time employees therefore receive the same terms as full-time colleagues, in proportion to their hours. This is the pro rata principle. For a move from 40 to 32 hours, it means the following:

• Salary: your salary is recalculated to 32/40 of the full-time amount.
• Holiday entitlement: your statutory leave is four times your weekly hours (Article 7:634 BW), so 128 hours a year instead of 160. Extra leave under your contract or cao usually falls in proportion too.
• Holiday allowance (vakantiegeld): at least 8 percent of your gross salary, now calculated on the lower salary.
• Pension: accrual follows the rules of your pension scheme and usually falls in proportion to your salary.
• Sickness: if you fall ill, continued payment of wages (at least 70 percent, Article 7:629 BW) is based on your new salary.

Allowances that do not depend on hours, such as a phone or a laptop, generally stay the same. Travel allowances and lease arrangements depend on the terms of your contract. For more on leave for part-time staff, see our article on paid time off for part-time employees.

Compressed week: same hours, different days

If you work 40 hours in four days of ten hours, you remain a full-time employee. Salary, holiday allowance and pension stay the same. The contract must still be amended to reflect the new daily hours and the new schedule.

Leave deserves attention. Statutory leave is expressed in hours: four times 40 is 160 hours a year. On a five-day week that equals 20 days off. On a compressed week one day off costs ten hours, so the same 160 hours give you 16 days. This is not a reduction in leave, but employees are often surprised by it. Explain it before the change starts and record leave in hours rather than days.

Public holidays on your day off

Dutch law does not give you a statutory right to a paid day off on a public holiday. Whether you are free on King’s Day or Christmas, and what happens when the holiday falls on your day off, depends on your contract, the staff handbook or the cao.

Many employers apply a simple rule: if the holiday falls on one of your working days, you are off with pay; if it falls on your regular day off, you do not get a replacement day. Some cao’s compensate part-time employees in hours to avoid unequal treatment. Agree on this in writing before the change takes effect, so there is no discussion later in the year.

How do you handle payroll, working time and overtime?

A compressed week must stay within the limits of the Working Hours Act (Arbeidstijdenwet), and payroll and time registration must be adjusted to the longer days. Dutch law does not give a statutory right to overtime pay; any premium follows from the contract or the cao.

Maximum working hours and breaks

The Working Hours Act sets maximum limits for employees aged 18 and over. You may work at most 12 hours per shift and 60 hours per week. Over a period of four weeks you may work no more than 55 hours per week on average, and over sixteen weeks no more than 48 hours per week on average. A schedule of four ten-hour days fits within these limits.

Rest and breaks remain important on longer days. After a shift you are entitled to at least 11 hours of uninterrupted rest, which may be shortened to 8 hours once in every seven days. A shift of more than 5.5 hours requires at least 30 minutes’ break, and a shift of more than 10 hours at least 45 minutes. Breaks may be split into parts of at least 15 minutes. Plan a ten-hour day with this in mind: with breaks, the employee is often at work for close to eleven hours.

Adjusting time registration

Many time registration and payroll systems assume an eight-hour day. If the system is not adjusted, it may flag the ninth and tenth hour of every day as overtime. That leads to payroll errors and confusion.

Update the standard working day in each employee profile to the agreed schedule. Make sure extra hours are only registered beyond the contractual daily or weekly hours. Explain to managers and employees how to record hours under the new pattern, so that corrections afterwards are not needed.

What counts as overtime?

Overtime is work beyond the hours agreed in your contract. The Working Hours Act sets limits, but says nothing about pay for extra hours. Whether you receive a premium, time off in lieu or nothing extra depends on your contract and any applicable cao.

What the law does require is that you receive at least the statutory minimum wage for every hour worked. Since 1 January 2024 the minimum wage is set per hour, so extra hours can never be unpaid in a way that takes you below that level.

On a schedule of four ten-hour days, an eleventh hour on a Tuesday is overtime, and so is work on the fifth day. Many contracts and cao’s were written with a five-day week in mind. Check whether the overtime rules still make sense for the new pattern, and adjust them in writing where necessary.

How does EU law fit in?

The EU Work-Life Balance Directive requires member states to give working parents of children up to at least eight years old, and carers, the right to request flexible working arrangements. Dutch law goes further: the Flexible Working Act applies to every employee with 26 weeks of service, whatever the reason for the request.

Under the Directive (EU) 2019/1158, flexible arrangements include reduced working hours, flexible schedules and remote working. The Directive gives a right to request, not a right to receive, and leaves the details to the member states.

For an international employer with staff in several EU countries, this means the rules differ per country. A policy that works in Germany or Belgium does not automatically comply with the Dutch procedure and its deadlines. Check the national rules before you roll out a group-wide four-day week policy.

How can you pilot a four-day week in your business?

Record the pilot in a temporary written addendum to each participating employee’s contract, with a fixed end date and a clear return to the old schedule. That way you test the model without permanently changing the contracts.

A pilot gives you data instead of opinions. It lets you see what works, what does not, and which practical problems need solving before you make a long-term commitment. Define in advance what success means for your business. A pilot without measurable goals usually ends in a discussion about impressions.

Set goals and measure them

Useful measures are a mix of figures and feedback. Think of output per team, such as completed projects, sales or handled cases. Add sickness absence, and staff satisfaction measured anonymously before and after the pilot. Keep an eye on client response times and complaints, so service quality does not suffer unnoticed.

Measure the same things before the pilot starts, so you can compare. Operating costs such as energy and office use can also be worth tracking. Share the results with the participants: it makes the final decision easier to explain, whichever way it goes.

Manage the risks

Longer days can lead to fatigue, especially in physically demanding or client-facing work. The employer’s duty of care for health and safety applies in full during a pilot. Watch for signs of overload and be willing to adjust the schedule.

Continuous coverage is the most common practical problem. Staggering days off helps, but requires clear scheduling and communication. If you ask an employee to be available on their day off for urgent matters, agree in writing how that time is recorded and paid, and respect the rest periods of the Working Hours Act.

What should the pilot addendum contain?

A pilot is temporary, but it still changes the working hours in the contract. It must therefore be agreed with each employee and recorded in writing. A temporary addendum should at least contain:

• the start date and end date of the pilot;
• the new schedule: working days, daily hours and breaks;
• a statement that the pilot is temporary and does not permanently change the terms of employment;
• a clause that the original hours and schedule apply again automatically after the end date, unless the parties agree otherwise in writing;
• the criteria by which the pilot will be evaluated.

Treat employees in comparable positions equally when selecting participants. Excluding part-time staff or a specific group without an objective reason can conflict with equal treatment law. If your business has a works council (ondernemingsraad), check whether its consent is needed: under Article 27 of the Works Councils Act (Wet op de ondernemingsraden, WOR), a change to the working and rest time arrangements for a group of employees requires the works council’s consent.

A well-drafted addendum also protects employees. It avoids the situation in which an employee who agreed to a trial later finds that the one-year waiting period of the Flexible Working Act blocks a quick return to the old schedule.

In summary

• There is no legal right to a four-day week, but after 26 weeks of service you can request fewer hours or a different schedule under the Flexible Working Act.
• Submit your request in writing at least two months in advance. Your employer must decide in writing at least one month before the start date, or the request is granted automatically.
• An employer with ten or more employees may only refuse for weighty business or service interests, which it must substantiate.
• Reduced hours mean pro rata pay and leave. A compressed week keeps pay the same, but changes how leave and public holidays work.
• A pilot is best recorded in a temporary contract addendum with a fixed end date.

Frequently asked questions

Law & More advises employees and employers on requests to change working hours, contract amendments and disputes under the Flexible Working Act.

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