HOLIDAYS

Everybody is entitled to holidays from the moment they start working for their employer. But how many holidays do you have in the Netherlands and what are the options with for these days we will show you below.

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀

The reason why you are immediately entitled to holidays is because an employer has to give you four times the number of hours you work per week per year. For instance when you work for 30 hours a week, you will get 120 hours of holiday hours. When you are on holiday or having a nice day off with your family the employer should continue to pay you. Also, when you are sick or when you having the day off you will still get this time times four as your legal holidays.

𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁

It is possible that your employer chooses to give you more holidays than the statutory holidays, these are called ‘bovenwettelijke vakantiedagen’. Your employment contract or collective agreement states whether you are entitled to these extra days. For these extra days, you may also have them paid by your employer. However, you and your employer cannot oblige each other to do this. With statutory holidays this is not an option only at the end of the contract.

𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗶𝗿𝘆 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲:

Yes there is a expiry date on your holidays. The statutory holidays that you didn’t take that year you will have to take within 6 months. A broader expiry period may have been agreed on collective employment agreement. For the extra days, you will have more time. For these days, you have 5 years to take them. In some cases, the days off do not expire. This is when you for example were unable to take the days off due to illness or your boss did not allow you to take the days off.