Holiday entitlement

If you run a business in the Netherlands and you employ staff, or if your business has its registered office outside of the Netherlands and you employ workers in the Netherlands, you must comply with statutory regulations regarding holiday entitlements. These regulations state that employees are entitled to a minimum number of days' leave with retention of pay.

The statutory number of days’ leave per year is at least four times the number of working days per week (e.g. 20 days per year in the event of full-time employment). In the event of part-time employment, the number of days’ leave is calculated proportionally. Your sector's collective labour agreement (CAO) may contain other agreements on holiday entitlements. In that case you must comply with these agreements.

Taking statutory holidays

Employees must take their statutory holidays within 6 months after the accrual year (as from 1 January 2012). Days' holiday accrued in 2012 will, therefore, not apply on 1 July 2013. After that, these holidays will lapse. The 6-month period does not apply to employees who have reasonably been unable to take holiday. You and your employee(s) may, in joint consultation, decide to extend the period. According to the collective agreement, a 5-year period applies to additional holidays. This period also applies to days' holiday accrued before 2012.

Public holidays

The Netherlands has a number of generally recognised (Christian) public holidays and public holidays that are not generally recognised. The generally recognised public holidays are New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter, Queen’s Day, Liberation Day, Ascension Day, Whit and Christmas. The collective labour agreement (CAO) or employment contract that applies to your employees determines whether they have a day off on these public holidays. Public holidays that are not generally recognised are, for example, the holiday of Eid Al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan or Chanukah. The collective labour agreement may state that a Christian public holiday can be substituted for a non-recognised public holiday.

5 May (Liberation Day)

Although 5 May is a public holiday, this does not necessarily mean that your employees are entitled to a paid day off. The regulations differ from sector to sector. In the business sector, the collective labour agreement (CAO) determines whether 5 May is a paid day off. Many CAOs stipulate that 5 May is a day off once every five years (e.g. 2015, 2020 and 2025). You decide whether your employees have a day off on 5 May if the CAO does not contain any provisions on this subject or if there is no CAO in your sector.