The rights and obligations of an employee are laid down in Dutch employment law. The main employee rights and obligations are set out below.

Do work

An employee is obliged to perform the agreed work himself, to the best of his ability, and to follow reasonable orders and instructions of the employer. Disciplinary measures can follow when an employee refuses to comply with the employer’s reasonable orders and instructions.

Wages

An employee is entitled to a salary. Every worker aged 21 and over is entitled to a minimum wage that is indexed annually.

Holiday

An employee is entitled to a minimum number of holidays per year. Expressed in hours, this is 4 times the number of hours an employee works per week. In the case of full-time employment of at least one year, an employee is entitled to 20 statutory holidays. An employee must consult his employer about when he takes his holidays. In a COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT, the available number of holidays is fixed.

Commuting allowance

An employer is not obliged to reimburse travel expenses. It is not legally established that an employee is entitled to travel expenses. If a travel allowance is agreed in the employment contract, the kilometres travelled are usually reimbursed up to a maximum of €0.19 per km.

Working conditions

An employee is entitled to information on professional support on healthy and safe working, information about work, risks and measures and protection against unsafe or unhealthy work situations. For example, an employer must, among other things, give an employee all the necessary safety instructions, provide materials and comply with the obligations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The employer must also maintain the materials and the premises properly and comply with the safety regulations.

An employee must apply knowledge from his training and instructions from the employer, use the resources and personal protective equipment appropriately, follow safety regulations, contribute to the proper implementation of occupational health and safety policies, report safety or health hazards to the employer, follow instructions and courses in the field of healthy and safe working.