Holiday entitlement for employees: what you need to know
Employees in the Netherlands are entitled to a minimum amount of paid annual leave based on their working hours. You can also agree to give them additional leave days. Your employees may carry unused leave days over to the following year. Always make clear arrangements about annual leave with your employees.
On this page
- How many statutory holiday days are your employees entitled to?
- What are extra-statutory holiday days?
- Are employees free to decide when to take leave?
- What happens to unused holiday entitlement?
- Can you pay out unused holiday entitlement?
- Does your employee build up annual leave while on leave?
- What happens to holiday entitlement during periods of illness?
- Other frequently asked questions
How many statutory holiday days are your employees entitled to?
Dutch law sets a minimum amount of paid annual leave for employees. This is called statutory holiday entitlement or wettelijke vakantiedagen in Dutch.
Employees are entitled to at least 4 times the number of days they work per week. For example, an employee who works 4 days per week is entitled to 16 statutory holiday days per year.
If you calculate leave in hours, employees are entitled to 4 times the number of hours they work per week. For example, an employee who works 40 hours per week is entitled to 160 hours of statutory leave per year.
Does your employee not work for you for the entire year? For example, because they were hired later in the year? Then calculate their statutory leave entitlement based on the hours or weeks they have worked.
What are extra-statutory holiday days?
- Extra-statutory holiday days, or bovenwettelijke vakantiedagen in Dutch, are additional paid leave days. These are on top of your employee's statutory holiday entitlement.
Your collective labour agreement (CAO) may contain arrangements regarding these additional holiday days.
Some collective labour agreements (CAOs) and sectors have special arrangements for employees who are 50 or older. These arrangements may give employees additional leave days. Dutch law does not provide extra leave days based on age.
Are employees free to decide when to take leave?
Your employee can usually decide when to use their holiday leave.
Some employers have a fixed holiday period for all employees. This is known as a collective holiday. For example, many construction companies close for a period during the summer. This is known as the bouwvak in Dutch. Employees in the education sector often take leave during school holidays. A collective holiday period must be set out in the employment contract or CAO.
Can you deny an employee's holiday request?
If granting the leave would cause serious problems for your business, you can object in writing within 2 weeks of receiving the request. For example, if your employee requests days off during a busy period. In that case, your employee must be allowed to take their holiday leave at a different time.
Your employee must be able to use their statutory holiday entitlement each year.
What happens to unused holiday entitlement?
Your employee can carry over unused statutory holiday entitlement to the following year.
When does holiday entitlement expire?
Your employee must usually use their statutory holiday entitlement before 1 July of the following year. For example, statutory holiday entitlement accrued in 2026 expires on 1 July 2027. After that, it can no longer be used, unless a different period applies under the CAO or employment contract. And in some cases, there are legal reasons why it might not automatically expire, such as not being able to use all statutory leave from the previous year.
Your employee may save their extra-statutory holiday entitlement. Unused extra-statutory leave can be carried over for up to 5 years.
Can you pay out unused holiday entitlement?
- You may not pay out statutory holiday entitlement while your employee is employed by you. Except if your employee leaves your employment before using all their statutory holiday entitlement. In that case, you pay out the remaining statutory holiday entitlement.
- You may pay out extra-statutory holiday entitlement if you and your employee agree to this. You may not require your employee to agree to this.
Does your employee build up annual leave while on leave?
- Your employee does build up annual leave while on long-term care leave and additional partner leave.
- You can ask your employee to use extra-statutory holiday leave instead of sick leave or special leave (in Dutch). Your employee must agree to this.
- During pregnancy and maternity leave, your employee will continue to build up holiday entitlement as normal. You may not ask your employee to use holiday entitlement for pregnancy or maternity leave.
What happens to holiday entitlement during periods of illness?
Is your employee ill or partially ill? Then they will continue to build up holiday entitlement as normal. Other agreements may be made regarding building up extra-statutory holiday entitlement during illness. This must be clearly set out in the employment contract or CAO.
Other frequently asked questions
If your employee becomes ill while on holiday, they do not lose the holiday days on which they are ill. These days count as sick days. Your employee must, however, report their illness. They may then use these holiday days at a later date.
Employees with a zero-hour contract are also entitled to paid holiday leave. The statutory entitlement is 4 times the number of hours they work per week per year. With a zero-hour contract, your employee does not work a fixed number of hours per week. A portion per hour worked is often agreed upon for calculating the amount of holiday entitlement due. How you calculate this is specified in the CAO or set out in the employment contract.
The CAO or employment contract will set out whether your employee has the day off on public holidays. Dutch law does not state that employees are automatically entitled to time off on public holidays.