Ensuring good terms of employment
If you hire staff, you have to deal with terms of employment. Read what different conditions there are and what rules you must follow.
What are terms of employment?
Terms of employment are the terms or agreements you make with your employees when they come to work with you. For example, salary and working hours. Oral agreements on employment conditions made during aa interview, for example, are valid. But it is better to put the agreements in writing. You do this in an employment contract. This is a contract between you and your employee.
What is a terms of employment interview?
During a terms of employment interview (arbeidsvoorwaardengesprek) you discuss the conditions together. You must give your employee clear information about the terms of employment. For example:
- working hours and days
- salary, also for irregular shift work
- the number of days off
- training
- a company car
- the work place
Employment conditions proposal
You can send a proposal to your new employee before the terms of employment interview. This is called an employment conditions proposal. In it, you put your employment terms and conditions. You can then discuss this together.
Types of terms of employment
Primary terms of employment
Primary terms of employment are the main matters you need to agree on with your employee. Such as the wage, the position, and the number of hours that someone works. These are the core of the employment contract. The main terms are:
- any allowances, bonuses, commissions (in Dutch)
Secondary terms of employment
Secondary terms of employment are the conditions that come on top of the primary ones. Examples of secondary employment terms are:
Offering flexible secondary terms of employment
You can offer your employees flexible secondary terms of employment. They can then choose which employment conditions they want. This is also known as 'a la carte employment terms'. For example: compensate overtime in money or in time off. Or take non-statutory holidays as leave or use these days to pay for a bicycle.
Tertiary employment conditions
Tertiary employment conditions are provisions that are difficult to express in monetary terms. Examples of tertiary employment conditions are:
- Christmas gift box
- use of the company canteen
- sports or exercise during working hours
- high-quality work environment
You can also consider offering socially responsible or sustainable working conditions. Read more on KVK about improving engagement with good employment conditions.
Tax benefits for gifts for employees
You can use the unused budget from the work-related costs scheme for gifts and other extras for your staff. For example, for a Christmas gift box or an end-of-year gift.
You can also deduct the VAT on gifts. To do so, you must not spend more than €227 (excluding VAT) in 2026 per employee on gifts and extras in a year. Learn how to calculate the expenditure per employee on the Tax Administration website (in Dutch).
Employment conditions in the law and collective labour agreement
Is there a collective labour agreement (CAO) for your sector? Check which agreements it contains about terms and conditions of employment.
Some employment conditions must meet a basic standard. For example, a minimum hourly wage. And you may not give fewer holiday days than the legal minimum.
You can make extra agreements about the conditions but they must follow the law or CAO.
Terms of a benefits scheme
You can also make separate agreements with your employees in a benefits scheme. The agreements in a benefits scheme do not automatically apply to every employee, like in a CAO. Each employee must agree to the arrangement again.
You must comply with the following laws and regulations:
This contains rules about, for example, trial period, holidays, notice period, and dismissal.
This states that you must pay at least the minimum wage and minimum holiday allowance.
The Working Hours Act sets out rules about working hours and rest periods.
Under the Working Conditions Act, you must ensure that your employees can work safely and healthily.
Here you will find information about a number of leave schemes to which your employee is entitled.
You must not discriminate against your employees. There should be no difference in terms of employment between:
- men and women
- native Dutch citizens and immigrants
- full-timers and part-timers
- employees with a permanent or temporary contract
- people with and without disabilities
- healthy people and people with a chronic illness
You must pay an employee's wages on time. The employment contract specifies when this is done.
With the first salary payment, you must provide an explanation of the salary, the payslip.
Payroll employees: the same legal position and employment conditions
Payroll employees and agency staff have the same terms of employment and legal status (in Dutch) as your other employees. Do you hire employees through a temporary employment or payroll company? In that case, you must notify the temporary employment or payroll company of your terms and conditions of employment. You do this prior to the posting.