Working as an agency worker
Are you an agency worker? Then in your agency work employment contract, you will find information about position, number of hours you work, place of work, etc. Your employer is legally obliged to provide this information. Your contract may also include a reference to this website. On this website, you will find information on leave options, for example, and what rules apply when your employment contract ends.
The texts on this website contain some legal wording. Don’t understand something or have questions? Ask your contact person at your employment agency.
This site is an initiative of ABU (Algemene Bond Uitzendondernemingen – www.abu.nl).
What are you entitled to as an agency worker?
The law provides that all employees are entitled to leave equalling at least four times the agreed weekly working time or, if the agreed working time is expressed in hours per year, at least an equivalent period of time. See Section 7:634 of the Dutch Civil Code. This adds up to 20 days’ holiday per year for employees working full-time (40 hours) per week, throughout the year. These 20 days’ holiday are referred to as statutory days’ holiday.
Under the Collective Labour Agreement for Agency Workers, you can obtain days’ holiday in excess of the statutory minimum. This depends on the terms and conditions of employment at your employment agency. Your terms and conditions of employment must be at least equivalent to those of your client. They do not have to be the same, but the total value of your terms and conditions of employment should be the same. Any supplementary holidays are referred to as non-statutory holidays. See Articles 21 and 31 of the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) for Agency Workers. See Articles 21 and 31 of the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) for Agency Workers.
To the extent possible, days’ holiday must be taken in the calendar year in which the holiday entitlement is accrued. For employees with a Phase A or a Phase B agency work employment contract, statutory days’ holiday lapse one year after the last day of the (calendar) year in which the holidays were accrued. See Article 31(1) of the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) for Agency Workers. By way of example: holiday entitlement accrued in 2025 will lapse on 1 January 2027.
Days’ holiday over and above the statutory minimum expire five years after the calendar year in which the holiday entitlement was accrued. An example: an employee accrues 4 days’ holiday over and above the statutory minimum in 2025. These must be taken before 1 January 2031.
Note: for employees working on the basis of a Phase C agency work employment contract, all days’ holiday (both statutory days’ holiday and days’ holiday over and above the statutory minimum) are subject to the five-year expiry period.
Which public holidays you have depends on your terms and conditions of employment at your employment agency. Your terms and conditions of employment must be at least equivalent to those of your client. They do not have to be the same, but the total value of your terms and conditions of employment should be the same.
Article 30 of the Collective Labour Agreement for Agency Workers tells you whether you are entitled to continued payment of wages if the public holiday coincides with a day when it is not clear whether you would normally work.
Pursuant to Section 3:1 of the Dutch Work and Care Act [Wet arbeid en zorg], female employees who are due to give birth are entitled to maternity leave.
Your right to short-term leave is regulated in the terms and conditions of employment of your employment agency and in Article 4:1 of the Work and Care Act. Your terms and conditions of employment must be at least equivalent to those of your client. They do not have to be the same, but the total value of your terms and conditions of employment should be the same.
Short-term absence is defined as absence for a reasonable period of time during which the agency worker is unable to work. This may be due to:
- unforeseen circumstances that require immediate interruption of the work;
- having to comply with an obligation imposed by law or a government authority, without any financial compensation, which obligation cannot be complied with in the agency worker’s own time (i.e. the employee is only able to vote during work time)
- very special personal circumstances (such as the death of a partner).
Section 4:2 of the Dutch Work and Care Act [Wet arbeid en zorg] prescribes that, after the employee’s spouse or registered partner, the person with whom the employee cohabits without being married, or the person whose child the employee acknowledges as his own has given birth, the employee is entitled to paid birth leave for a period equalling one working week, to be taken over the course of four weeks. The four-week term starts on the first day after the birth.
Pursuant to Section 5:1 of the Dutch Work and Care Act [Wet arbeid en zorg], employees are entitled to leave for required care in connection with illness of a parent, partner or child.
Whether you are entitled to special leave is regulated by the terms and conditions of employment of your employment agency. Your terms and conditions of employment must be at least equivalent to those of your client. They do not have to be the same, but the total value of your terms and conditions of employment should be the same.
Special leave includes leave for special events such as marriage or death.
An employment relationship (contract) ends. Below are the rules that apply to the employer and the employee.
Pursuant to Article 16 of the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) for Temporary Agency Workers, a probationary period clause can only be included in a fixed-term agency work employment contract without an agency clause if the term for which it is entered into exceeds six months. If, after an interruption of one year or less, a subsequent fixed-term agency work employment contract without an agency clause is entered into, a probationary period clause cannot be included again. A probationary period can, however, be agreed upon again if the work to be performed under the new contract clearly requires different skills or clearly involves different responsibilities.
Pursuant to Article 18 of the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) for Temporary Agency Workers,
an agency work employment contract with agency clause will end by operation of law:
- as soon as the end date agreed in the agency work employment contract is reached. Even if the agency worker is unfit for work at that time.
- at the end of phase A.
- the user company is no longer willing or able to hire the agency worker, regardless the reason thereof. During the agency worker’s incapacity for work, the placement does not end, which means that the agency work employment contract does not end.
- because the agency worker, for whatever reason, is no longer able or willing to perform the agreed work, unless the agency worker does not perform the agreed work as a result of incapacity for work.
If the placement lasted more than 26 weeks worked, the employment agency will be obliged when terminating the agency work employment contract by invoking the agency clause to notify this to the agency worker at least ten calendar days before termination by operation of law, also during incapacity for work. If the employment agency fails to observe the notice period, the employment agency will be liable to pay the agency worker compensation equalling the basic wage that the agency worker would have earned over the notice period that the private employment agency has failed to observe, unless the employment agency offers the agency worker suitable work during that period.
Agency workers must submit a request to terminate their agency work employment contract with agency clause to the employment agency at least one working day in advance.
Pursuant to Article 18(4) of the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) for Temporary Agency Workers, temporary agency workers and private employment agencies can terminate a fixed-term agency work employment contract without an agency clause at all times, with effect from the next working day, and with due observance of a statutory notice period in accordance with Section 7:672 of the Dutch Civil Code, unless this has specifically been excluded in the agency work employment contract in writing. If the term of the agency work employment contract is shorter than the statutory notice period, early termination will not be possible under any circumstances.
In derogation from the above, the temporary agency worker can terminate the agency work employment contract without agency clause with immediate effect if the private employment agency relies on exclusion of continued payment of wages.
Pursuant to Article 18(6) of the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) for Agency Workers, an open-ended agency work employment contract without agency clause can be terminated with effect from the next working day, and with due observance of the statutory notice period.
The rules that apply to the employer and the employee upon termination of an employment agreement can be found in Book 7, Title 10, Part 9 (Section 667 – 686a) of the Dutch Civil Code.
Pursuant to Section 7:686a(4)(a) of the Dutch Civil Code, the authority to submit a petition to the subdistrict court lapses two months after the day on which the employment agreement ends.
If and insofar as the agency worker is entitled to a transition allowance pursuant to Section 7:673 of the Dutch Civil Code and the employment agency has not paid this transition allowance or has not paid it in full, the agency worker may claim payment of the transition allowance. The agency worker must do so within 12 months of the day the agency work employment contract ended.
By law (Section 7:686(4) of the Dutch Civil Code), the agency worker can claim the transitional compensation until 3 months after the end of the agency work employment contract. If the agency worker: failed to invoke this, then, pursuant to the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) for Agency Workers, the agency worker has an entitlement/right to compensation equal to the amount of this transition allowance until 12 months after the day the agency work employment contract ended, to which the agency worker would have been entitled if agency worker had filed this claim within the statutory expiry limit.
The right to WW (in case of unemployment) and WGA (in case of disability) benefits expires after a certain time. As regards agency workers, it has been arranged that the right to both is extended through private insurance. Depending on how this is arranged with the client, you pay this yourself. This is regulated in Article 55 of the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) for Agency Workers.
The PAWW scheme is usually administered by Stichting PAWW (SPAWW, but in some cases by another provider. Benefit recipients must apply for the supplement themselves at the time they are entitled to it. A condition for the supplement is that at the time of dismissal or upon commencement of a WGA entitlement, the employee is covered by a collective agreement in which an agreement has been made on this subject, such as the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) for Agency Workers. Explanations of the scheme can be found on the website of SPAWW.
If you are ill (incapacitated for work) at the time your agency work employment contract ends on the agreed end date in Phase A, your employment agency will supplement any entitlement to sickness benefits. This supplement applies:
- during the first 52 weeks of illness, up to 90% of the maximum daily wage used to calculate the benefit entitlement
- during the 53rd to the 104th week of illness, up to 80% of the maximum daily wage used to calculate the benefit entitlement
For this supplement, the employment agency may make a deduction from your basic wage.
Additional social schemes or insurances may apply to you at the employment agency where you work. If the employment agency has this scheme in place because your client also applies this scheme, depending on how this is arranged with your client, you may or may not have to pay the costs yourself. If your client does not have such a scheme in place, you as an agency worker will pay the relevant costs.
You are entitled to attend compulsory training free of charge, i.e. training that is necessary to perform your job. Time spent on training is considered working time.
Separately, you may be able to claim a training budget/offer under the terms and conditions of employment of your employment agency. Your terms and conditions of employment must be at least equivalent to those of your client. They do not have to be the same, but the total value of your terms and conditions of employment should be the same.
StiPP’s new pension scheme will start from 1 January 2026. The accrual of your pension consists of a fixed employer and employee part. You are therefore also paying into your pension yourself. Pensions are part of the equal remuneration scheme. This means that for pension accrual, the client’s pension scheme is compared. Does your client offer a better scheme? Then you will receive compensation for the part of pension you miss out on. Does your client offer a less favourable or no pension scheme? Then the StiPP scheme applies.