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Annual Leave rules in Netherlands

Helen

| 0 Posts

6 Jan, 2023 10:09

Hello, 

Is anyone familiar with annual leave rules in the Netherlands? We have an employee based there who was previously on a UK contract but working remotely, and has now moved on to a Dutch employment contract. 

We have an unofficial agreement with her that her total leave allowance (AL + BHs) will never be less than her UK colleagues, so in the 23/24 leave year when there will be 9 UK public holidays vs 5 in the Netherlands, we need to grant her some additional leave to make up the difference. 

My question is - can we require that she take those additional days on the UK public holidays? Or would that be in breach of Dutch employment law? Or does Dutch employment law not come in to it, because these are discretionary days in addition to her contractual leave days?

I can't find the info I need online and am loathe to ask the Dutch lawyers and be charged an hour's work for an unnecessarily long winded answer! 

Thank you!

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  • Sarah

    | 0 Posts

    6 Jan, 2023 12:14

    I'm not sure about mandating the days that are leave (although I would guess you could just call them paid office closure days and cover it that way) but I would still take some formal advice. Are you using a Dutch payroll provider, because they should be able to advise you about any implications? I dimly recall there are legal obligations relating to how holiday is paid in the Netherlands, possibly with a pro-rated portion payable each month regardless of when the holiday is taken; it sounds like something worth advice on from either the payroll provider or your legal advisor.
  • Maryam

    | 0 Posts

    8 Jan, 2023 08:29

    Hello Helen,

    I am not familiar with Dutch employment laws but this is a general rule of thumb regardless of the country of employment.

    The employment contract you offer your employee must have all minimum allowances as required by the local law. Anything else additional is only biding by the employment contract for the duration of that contract.

    The unofficial agreement is not on the contract or prescribed by the local regulations so the Dutch law does not come into it as you mentioned.

    You can offer her these days as optional additional benefits separate from her annual leave balance because in most countries annual leave must be paid if unused.
  • Scott Winter

    | 0 Posts

    12 Jan, 2023 19:20

    Hi Helen,

    Full time employees are entitled to a minimum of 20 days paid leave per year, however it is common for Dutch employers to offer more than this, with 25 days commonly being offered. Unused leave can be rolled over to the following year, but must be taken by July.​

    In addition to this, the Netherlands celebrates 11 public holidays.

    There's also an element of 8% vacation pay which may or may not be applicable.

  • Karl

    | 0 Posts

    14 Jan, 2023 16:41

    Hi Helen,
    My advice is to ask the Dutch lawyers. Dutch contract law is very strict and depending on company size, type of contract, vacation money (Scott mentions below) whether or not there is a Works Council (CLA/CAO) involved, type of industry ie Manufacturing/Petrochemicals can also impact...hence they probably charge so much :-)
    In principle, employees with Dutch contracts, must take their holiday allowance. This is a principle which was brought in around 1960s (slightly before my time) and you should pay them vacation money every year. This means you cannot force your employee to use their holiday allowance (min legal) to cover bank holidays. Hope that helps.
    Regards
    Karl