Checking a new Dutch employment contract
Although it is not the first thing that comes to mind when starting a new job, it can be smart to have (parts of) your Dutch employment contract checked or explained to you by an employment lawyer in Amsterdam. Just to make sure you know what you are getting into.
What information should a Dutch labour contract contain?
A lot of times an employment contract can be very basic. It tells you who the employer is and who the employee. When you will start and where you will work in The Netherlands. What your position will be and may be what the job will entail. How many hours you will work for them and what they will pay you for it and how and when they will pay you said amount.
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There will be some information about your days off, what to do when you get ill et cetera. All those basic things that you will find in an employment contract.
Should I have a lawyer review my employment agreement before I sign?
But sometimes there are other things written down in your contract as well. Things that are not so basic. They might want you to ask for a written permission for a side job or there is a clause stating that you are obliged to take a certain day off every year. Or maybe they will be paying for a study you will start while working for them, but you will have to stay on the job for at least a certain amount of time or you will have to pay back the education costs. Is that allowed according to Dutch Law? Are all these things allowed? This all depends on the situation.
But for example, regarding the side-jobs; this can be a very common thing in e.g., the financial sector, where it is important to know whether there might be a ‘dependency’ on a client in any way.
When your employer is paying for your studies, it makes sense they want to at least enjoy their investment for a while, but that doesn’t mean they can just demand you to pay back everything when you leave in say three years. But they are allowed to have you pay back part of the costs while they lessen the amount with the time you have stayed on as their employee.
Furthermore, your future employer is allowed to demand you to take off a certain day a year, think for a(n extreme) example about schoolteachers who need to take (a major part of) their holidays during school holidays.
CAO: the Dutch collective labour agreement
Then there is something else you need to take in mind and that is whether the company you are going to work for is part of a cao. A collectieve arbeidsovereenkomst, or a collective agreement. This is an agreement mostly negotiated between a union and your company or a union and an employer’s association which will cover your contract as well.
Questions about reviewing a new Dutch employment contract
Do you have any questions, or do you want (some clauses of) your new to be contract to be checked ? You can contact our Amsterdam lawyer Ruchama Bwefar at bwefar@wsadvocaten.nl or at 020 – 522 1999.