Employment contracts in the Netherlands: when does a fixed-term contract become permanent?

You hire someone for six months, renew twice, and then the contract suddenly turns out to be permanent, without you signing anything to make it happen. That’s the core of Dutch employment law for employers: a handful of rules in the Civil Code kick in automatically, and the date they tip over often arrives earlier than you think.

This guide covers what legally makes something an employment contract and when successive fixed-term contracts become a permanent contract (the chain rule). It also covers how long a probationary period can run, what the duty to give notice of continuation costs you if you miss it, and what the minimum wage currently is. See also the compliance hub for the Netherlands for the other topics in this series.

• After three fixed-term contracts or 36 months (whichever comes first), the next contract automatically becomes permanent (7:668a BW).
• A gap of more than six months between two contracts breaks the chain today; from 1 January 2028 that becomes 36 months (Stb. 2026, 206).
• The probationary period runs from zero (mandatory for contracts up to six months) to two months for a permanent contract (7:652 BW).
• Miss the duty to give notice of continuation entirely, and it costs a full month’s pay (7:668 BW).
• The minimum hourly wage for workers 21 and older is €14.99 from 1 July through 31 December 2026 (rijksoverheid.nl).

What legally makes someone an employee?

Three characteristics together: they perform work, receive pay for it, and do so under your authority for a period of time. As soon as those three elements are present, there’s an employment contract, whatever you call the contract yourself (7:610 BW).

The law goes further than the text of the contract. If someone works for you weekly for three consecutive months, or at least twenty hours a month, an employment contract is presumed to exist, even if you drew up a contract for services instead (7:610a BW). This mainly affects freelancers who in practice function as employees, and platform workers with a regular assignment.

There’s a second presumption, specific to the amount of work. Once a contract has run for at least three months, the number of contractually agreed hours for a month is presumed to equal the average of the three preceding months (7:610b BW). That protects employees with unclear or variable hours, such as zero-hours contracts and min-max contracts, against being structurally scheduled for fewer hours than they’ve actually worked.

If you regularly schedule someone for fixed hours and the substance of the work doesn’t differ from your other employees, check whether this presumption applies to your situation before you renew the contract.

When does a fixed-term contract automatically become permanent?

As soon as three fixed-term contracts have followed one another, or their combined duration passes 36 months (whichever comes first), the last contract counts by operation of law as entered into for an indefinite period. This is the chain rule, set out in 7:668a BW, and it’s the single most important mechanism in this whole topic.

“By operation of law” means literally this: on the day the threshold is crossed, the contract is permanent, even though nobody signed or confirmed anything. If you only notice months later, the contract was permanent the whole time and the normal dismissal protection applied throughout: you can’t retroactively let it lapse after the fact.

Both counts (the number of contracts and the combined duration) keep running as long as the gaps between contracts are no longer than six months. If a gap is longer than six months, the chain breaks completely: the next contract starts with a clean slate, as if it were the first. A collective bargaining agreement may widen these limits — see the table below for the extended contract count and duration — and shorten the gap to three months for seasonal work.

The change coming, and why it already counts today: the Act on More Security for Flexible Workers (Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers) has been passed by both chambers of parliament, signed on 8 July 2026, and published as Staatsblad 2026, 205. The accompanying commencement decree fixes the general date at 1 January 2028 (Staatsblad 2026, 206). From that date, the “3 contracts / 36 months” rule stays unchanged. Only the gap that breaks the chain changes: it grows from six months to three years, as the table above shows. An exception applies to school and university students who work an average of no more than 16 hours a week: for them the six-month gap stays in place. Until 1 January 2028, the current rule applies in full. Treat the upcoming change as something to factor into your planning now, not as current law.

Record the start date of the first contract in the chain and every gap for each employee on a fixed-term contract, so you can see at any moment how close you are to the threshold.

How long can a probationary period run?

That depends on the duration and type of contract, and no probationary period at all may be agreed for a contract of six months or less. The ladder is set out in 7:652 BW.

The probationary period has to be agreed in writing and be exactly the same length for both parties. A collective bargaining agreement may only deviate from the rules for the six-months-to-two-years contract and the contract without a fixed end date. The voidness for a contract of six months or less can’t be overridden by a collective bargaining agreement; that limit is fixed. You may only agree a new probationary period for a successive contract with the same employee, or with an employer who reasonably counts as the previous employer’s successor. That’s allowed only if the role clearly calls for different skills or responsibilities than the previous one.

During a valid probationary period, either party can end the contract with immediate effect, without a notice period and without the usual pre-dismissal review (7:676 BW). If the employee asks for the reason, you have to give it in writing.

Check for every new contract whether it counts as a successive contract with the same person before you include a probationary period. A probationary clause that isn’t allowed is simply void and gives you no protection at all.

What do you have to put in writing, and by when?

Within a week of the first working day, you have to record the core terms of employment in writing or electronically; the rest follows within a month. This comes from 7:655 BW, which implements the EU directive on transparent and predictable working conditions.

If you provide the information electronically, it has to carry a qualified electronic signature and be in a form the employee can store and print. You have to report a change to any of these terms (a different workplace, an adjusted salary) as soon as possible, and no later than the day the change takes effect.

Build these two deadlines into your onboarding checklist, so the core information is ready automatically in the first week and the rest follows within the month without you having to remember it by hand.

What is the duty to give notice of continuation, and what does it cost you if you miss it?

For a fixed-term contract of six months or longer, you have to let the employee know in writing, no later than one month before the contract ends automatically, whether it will be continued and on what terms. This is the duty to give notice of continuation (aanzegplicht), set out in 7:668 BW.

The duty doesn’t apply to contracts shorter than six months, or to contracts without a fixed calendar end date, for example a contract “for the duration of project X.” For every other fixed-term contract of six months or longer, the deadline applies without exception.

This compensation is separate from any other claims and is owed regardless of whether the contract ends up being continued or not: it only penalizes the missed or late notice, not the decision itself.

Set a reminder at least five weeks before the end date of every fixed-term contract of six months or longer, so you never accidentally run past the deadline.

When is a non-compete clause valid?

A non-compete clause is, in principle, only valid in a permanent contract, agreed in writing with an employee who is of age. This is set out in 7:653 BW.

In a fixed-term contract, you can still include a non-compete clause, but only if you state in writing, in the clause itself, why the clause is necessary because of substantial business or operational interests. If that specific justification is missing, or is worded too generally, the clause isn’t valid.

A modernization proposal is currently before the Council of State for advice, which would introduce a mandatory payment when the clause is invoked, a maximum duration, and a mandatory geographic scope. This proposal hasn’t yet been submitted to the House of Representatives and has no effective date. Don’t treat it as current law until it’s passed.

Include the specific, case-linked justification in every non-compete clause in a fixed-term contract. A standard formula you repeat in every contract doesn’t hold up in practice.

What is the minimum wage, and how often does it change?

For employees aged 21 and older, the statutory minimum hourly wage is €14.99 gross per hour from 1 July through 31 December 2026, regardless of the standard full-time hours within your company. This is on the official rates page at rijksoverheid.nl.

The minimum wage is revised twice a year, on 1 January and 1 July, so any reference to the figure should state the period it applies to. Since 1 January 2024, the minimum wage has been an hourly figure, no longer derived from a standard working week.

The youth rates are fixed euro amounts per age, not a percentage of the adult rate. A collective bargaining agreement may pay more than this statutory minimum, but never less. The Netherlands Labour Authority can impose a fine of €500 to €10,000 per employee for underpayment, and requires repayment within four weeks once a shortfall is established.

Set a reminder in your system for 1 January and 1 July to check the current rates, so an old rate doesn’t accidentally keep running after a revision.

What do you need to arrange when you hire your first employee?

Before your first employee starts, you have to register with the Tax Administration as an employer, no later than the day that employee starts. This registration gets you the payroll tax number you need to file payroll tax returns (belastingdienst.nl).

When any new employee joins, you also have to verify their identity using a passport, a Dutch identity card, or a residence document. A driving licence explicitly isn’t sufficient, because it doesn’t show nationality (rijksoverheid.nl). Keep a copy of the document in your payroll records, and retain that copy for at least five years after the calendar year in which the employee leaves.

Build the identity check and keeping the copy into a fixed, non-skippable part of your onboarding process, not something you add later.

What can a collective bargaining agreement change here, and what can’t it?

Most of book 7, title 10 of the Civil Code is semi-mandatory law: deviation is only allowed in the employee’s favor, or through an explicit exception that allows deviation only via a collective bargaining agreement. A collective bargaining agreement may widen the chain rule and shorten the seasonal-work gap, within the limits set out above (7:668a BW). It may also set the probationary period differently for a contract of six months to two years, or one without a fixed end date (7:652 BW).

A collective bargaining agreement can never lower the minimum wage, lift the voidness of a probationary period in a contract of six months or less, or contract away the information duty and the duty to give notice of continuation. For those last two, no collective-bargaining override clause has been found in the statutes.

The Netherlands Labour Authority enforces the minimum wage and holiday allowance with administrative fines, and steps up to heavier measures, up to and including a work stoppage, for repeated violations.

For every contract where a collective bargaining agreement applies, check explicitly which of these deviations the agreement actually uses, rather than assuming the statutory default limits apply.

How does Taito.ai help with this?

Knowing when the chain rule tips over is the hardest part to track by hand. Taito.ai, the people operations system, sets up the count of fixed-term contracts and elapsed months for every employee and keeps it maintained automatically as contracts renew.

Sources

• 7:610 BW — what makes someone an employee
• 7:610a BW — presumption of an employment contract
• 7:610b BW — presumption of contracted hours
• 7:668a BW — the chain rule for fixed-term contracts
• 7:652 BW — the probationary period
• 7:653 BW — the non-compete clause
• 7:655 BW — written particulars of employment
• 7:668 BW — the duty to give notice of continuation
• 7:676 BW — ending a contract during probation
• Staatsblad 2026, 205 and Staatsblad 2026, 206 — the Act on More Security for Flexible Workers (Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers) and its commencement decree
• Minimum Wage and Holiday Pay Act (WML)
• Netherlands Labour Authority

Statutes are cited as 7:668a BW: book 7, article 668a of the Dutch Civil Code. Remember that format and you’ll never need to decode a citation again.

Disclaimer

Taito.ai does not provide legal, tax or accounting advice. This article is general information about the law as it stood on the date above, not advice on your situation, and it is not a substitute for it. Rates and thresholds change. Check with a qualified adviser before acting on anything here.