What type of contract will I sign in the Netherlands?

When you travel to the Netherlands for work, you will sign a flexible working contract with a temporary employment agency in the Netherlands upon your arrival. The employment contract will be signed in either your mother tongue or if this contract is not available in the English language. This, so that you can understand what is written there.

The exact conditions of the contract depend on the agency you are going to work for. Two types of arrangements could be offered when you start working for the first time in the Netherlands.

More information about Dutch recruitment contracts

• 1. A fixed weekly contract in which you agree to commit to each other to work a minimum amount of hours, for example, 32 hours per week. In such an arrangement, the agency will have to offer you the number of hours written in the contract. In case these hours are not available, you will still get at least paid according to these hours. This contract is prolonged each week with a maximum of 78 weeks.
• 2. A flexible working contract is valid for either a month or half a year, with a maximum of a total of 78 weeks. There are no substantial obligations for both parties, the employment agency, and you look at the number of hours and the contract’s duration in this contract. The contract can be canceled at any moment.

After a total of being employed in the Netherlands for 78 weeks, the employment agency is obliged to offer you a new contract with a fixed term of, for example, three or six months. The contract cannot be canceled quickly as in the valid agreement in the first 78 weeks. From your side, you will have to be available for the job offered to you by the employment agency. After four years or a maximum of 6 contracts, the employment agency must provide you with an agreement with an undetermined term.

The recruitment contracts’ standards are set by the branch organization of employment agencies in the Netherlands and agreed upon with the Dutch government. This means that all employment agencies in the Netherlands have to stick to these employment rules.
More information on the branch organizations on employment agencies in the Netherlands can be found on:
www.abu.nl

If you have questions or wishes looking at the contracts you will sign in the Netherlands, please inform Robin’s job expert to decide what agency suits your desires best.