The Working Hours Act in the Netherlands: shift limits, breaks and on-call contracts

The Netherlands Labour Authority checks the Working Hours Act more often than any other law, and the record-keeping duty within it is the provision that draws the most fines. This is the guide for anyone running that administration themselves: the limits, the rest, the breaks, and the paperwork you need to be able to show.

• A maximum of 12 hours per shift and 60 hours per week, absolute limits with no collective bargaining agreement exception (article 5:7(2) of the Working Hours Act).
• An average of 55 hours per week over every four consecutive weeks — not 56, as some summaries claim (article 5:7(3) of the Working Hours Act).
• Daily rest of 11 hours, which can be shortened to 8 hours once a week; after 3 or more consecutive night shifts, that rises to 46 hours of rest (articles 5:3 and 5:8 of the Working Hours Act).
• You keep the record of hours worked and rest periods for at least 52 weeks (article 3.2:1 of the Working Hours Decree).
• Overtime carries no statutory premium: only the minimum wage is required for hours worked beyond the regular schedule.
• An on-call worker must receive an offer of fixed hours within a month, once their contract has run 12 months (article 7:628a(5) of the Civil Code).

Which laws govern attendance in the Netherlands?

Parliament passed the Working Hours Act itself. The Working Hours Decree is the order in council that works it out into practical rules — the limits for on-call duty, how long you must keep your records, and more (Working Hours Act and Working Hours Decree). Articles in the Working Hours Act are cited as <chapter>:<article>, so “article 5:7” means chapter 5, article 7; the Working Hours Decree uses the finer <chapter>.<section>:<article> scale. Those codes are a citation, not a sentence to parse.

One important exception: you can skip most of the Working Hours Act for employees aged 18 or over who earn at least three times the statutory minimum wage annually. The same goes for those who primarily manage on your behalf (article 2.1:1 of the Working Hours Decree, confirmed by the Netherlands Labour Authority). Check whether this exception applies to your senior staff before applying the rest of this guide.

How many hours can an employee work at most?

Twelve hours per shift and 60 hours per week are the absolute ceilings; two further averages flatten peaks over a longer stretch.

The only limit a collective bargaining agreement can stretch is the four-week average of 55 hours (article 5:7(4) of the Working Hours Act); the other three limits are entirely outside its reach. Recalculate the four-week average for your most heavily scheduled staff once a quarter.

How much rest must an employee get?

Every employee aged 18 or over is entitled to 11 hours of uninterrupted rest per 24-hour period, with an exception that can only be used once a week.

That 11-hour period (article 5:3(2) of the Working Hours Act) can be shortened to a minimum of 8 hours once per rolling 7×24-hour cycle, if the nature of the work or business circumstances require it. For weekly rest, you choose between two regimes (article 5:5 of the Working Hours Act): 36 hours uninterrupted per 7×24 hours, or 72 hours per 14×24 hours, splittable into blocks of at least 32 hours each. Sunday additionally carries a default of no work unless the nature of the work requires it and other arrangements have been agreed (article 5:6 of the Working Hours Act). Decide in advance which weekly-rest regime you use and fix it in the roster.

How much of a break must you give, and when?

For a shift longer than 5.5 hours, an employee is entitled to at least 30 minutes of break; beyond 10 hours, that rises to 45 minutes.

Both breaks can be split into blocks of at least 15 minutes each (article 5:4(2) of the Working Hours Act). A collective bargaining agreement can shorten these breaks, but never below 15 minutes for a shift over 5.5 hours; any clause that goes further is void (article 5:4(3) of the Working Hours Act). For employees aged 16 and 17, the 30-minute threshold already applies from 4.5 hours of work per shift (article 5:4(1) of the Working Hours Act). Check your collective bargaining agreement before scheduling a shorter break than the statutory 30 or 45 minutes.

What are the rules for night shifts?

A night shift is any shift with more than 1 hour of work between midnight and 6am, and as a rule it cannot run longer than 10 hours.

That follows from the definition in article 1:1(d) of the Working Hours Act and the maximum in article 5:8(1) of the Working Hours Act. Under strict conditions a night shift can run up to 12 hours. That is allowed no more than 5 times per 14 days and 22 times per 52 weeks, and each one must be followed by at least 12 hours of rest (article 5:8(3) of the Working Hours Act). If someone works a night shift 16 times or more within 16 weeks, the average over that cycle cannot exceed 40 hours per week (article 5:8(2) of the Working Hours Act). If a night shift ends after 2am, at least 14 hours of rest must follow — shortenable to 8 hours once a week. After 3 or more consecutive night shifts, that minimum rises to 46 hours (article 5:8(4)-(5) of the Working Hours Act). The total is capped too: no more than 140 night shifts per 52 weeks can end after 2am, and no more than 38 hours can fall between midnight and 6am per 2 weeks (article 5:8(9) of the Working Hours Act). You also cannot schedule more than 7 consecutive shifts if a night shift falls among them (article 5:8(6) of the Working Hours Act).

Employers often ask whether employees aged 55 and over are legally entitled to fewer night shifts. They are not: a full search of both the Working Hours Act and the Working Hours Decree for age-based provisions turns up nothing for this group. If such an arrangement exists at your company, it comes from a collective bargaining agreement, never from the statute itself. Count how often your most heavily scheduled night workers actually work past 2am each year.

What are the rules for on-call duty, on-premises standby, and contactable standby?

Three different forms of availability outside the regular shift, each with its own limits and its own rest requirements.

On-call duty (consignatie) (article 5:9 of the Working Hours Act) can only be imposed on employees aged 18 or over, and does not itself count as hours worked. On-premises standby (aanwezigheidsdienst) and contactable standby (bereikbaarheidsdienst) (Working Hours Decree, definitions) can only be imposed if a collective bargaining agreement allows it. The agreement is a gate here, not an adjustment.

If you combine the three forms, the combined maximum of 3 per week and 32 per 16 weeks applies. Confirm first whether your collective bargaining agreement permits on-premises or contactable standby at all. Without that basis, you cannot impose them.

Do special rules apply to young workers and children?

Yes: 16- and 17-year-olds have lower hour limits and more rest, and children under 16 are, in principle, not allowed to work at all.

For young workers (age 16–17), five limits are tighter than the adult rules.

Night work between 11pm and 6am is banned for this group (article 2.1:2 of the Working Hours Decree). Children under 16 fall under the ban on child labour in chapter 3 of the Working Hours Act. Work is allowed only in narrowly defined exceptions permitted by ministerial order, and even then you must give at least 12 hours of rest per 24 hours, including 11pm–6am (article 3:3(3) of the Working Hours Act). Check every hire under 18 against these limits before you build the roster.

What extra protections apply to pregnant employees?

A pregnant employee works no more than 10 hours per shift and keeps the right to decline night shifts, and this protection runs through 6 months after childbirth.

The amount of work allowed is lower than for other adults.

Night shifts cannot be required unless you can show it is reasonably unavoidable (article 4:5(5) of the Working Hours Act). She is also entitled to extra breaks of up to an eighth of the shift, which count as paid hours worked, and to a fixed and regular attendance pattern (article 4:5(2)-(3) of the Working Hours Act). All of this protection continues through 6 months after childbirth (article 4:7 of the Working Hours Act), and any clause that departs from it to her disadvantage is void (article 4:5(7) of the Working Hours Act). An employee who is breastfeeding may interrupt work to nurse or express milk for up to 9 months after birth, for up to a quarter of the shift (article 4:8 of the Working Hours Act). Flag a pregnancy as a separate roster category the moment you are told.

What must you record about attendance, and how long do you keep it?

You must keep a proper record of the hours actually worked, not just a roster set in advance, and you retain that data for at least 52 weeks.

The record-keeping duty itself sits in article 4:3 of the Working Hours Act: a proper record of hours worked and rest periods that allows for supervision, with the detailed implementation left to the Working Hours Decree. The Netherlands Labour Authority explains it this way: “That means the hours worked must be logged somewhere.” A planned roster on its own is not enough. The retention period is at least 52 weeks from the date the data relates to (article 3.2:1 of the Working Hours Decree). For staffed mining installations and offshore wind farms, a copy must reach the Dutch head office within 6 weeks (article 3.1:1 of the Working Hours Decree).

This is the provision the Labour Authority fines most often, so make sure your record captures the hours actually worked, not only the planned roster.

Can an employee request different work hours?

Yes: under the Flexible Working Act, an employee can request a change to hours, timing, or location after 26 weeks of employment, and if you do not decide in time, the request goes through automatically.

The scheme does not apply to employers with fewer than 10 employees, though those employers must still set up their own arrangement for this right (article 2(18) of the Flexible Working Act). An employee who has worked for you for at least 26 weeks submits the request in writing, at least 2 months before the desired start date. In unforeseen circumstances, you must decide within 5 working days instead of the normal period (article 2(1) and (3) of the Flexible Working Act). You must grant a request to change hours or timing unless significant business or operational interests stand in the way; for a request to change location, you only have to consider it (article 2(5)-(7) of the Flexible Working Act). If you have not decided at least 1 month before the desired start date, the change goes through automatically as requested (article 2(12) of the Flexible Working Act). Put that 1-month deadline straight into your calendar for every request.

Do you have to pay extra for overtime?

No. There is no statutory overtime premium in the Netherlands.

Neither the Working Hours Act nor Book 7 of the Civil Code requires an extra percentage such as 125% or 150%. What always applies: the Dutch government confirms that at least the statutory minimum wage is owed for additional and overtime hours. Everything above that (a premium, time off in lieu, a fixed allowance) comes exclusively from a collective bargaining agreement or the individual contract. Confirm which collective bargaining agreement covers your staff, and only apply a premium once that agreement explicitly provides for it.

What are the rules for on-call contracts?

An on-call contract carries a minimum notice period of four days, a minimum payment of three hours per call-up, and a mandatory offer of fixed hours after twelve months.

You cannot require an on-call worker to show up unless you announced the times in writing or electronically at least 4 days in advance. If you withdraw or change a call-up within that 4-day window, you still owe the full pay for the original call-up (article 7:628a(2)-(3) of the Civil Code). A collective bargaining agreement can shorten that period, but never below 24 hours (article 7:628a(4) of the Civil Code). Once the contract has run for 12 months, you make an offer within a month for a fixed number of hours equal to the average of those 12 months. The employee then gets at least a month to decide (article 7:628a(5) of the Civil Code).

This area is about to change. The Act on More Security for Flexible Workers (Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers) has passed both the lower and upper house of parliament. Under the commencement decree for its general provisions, it takes effect on 1 January 2028 (Staatsblad 2026, 206). From that date, a “bandwidth contract” replaces the current on-call contract, with a fixed agreed minimum and maximum number of hours whose gap can be no more than 130%. Until then, article 7:628a of the Civil Code as described above remains the governing rule. Treat the current rules as the standard for now, and plan the move to the bandwidth contract for 2028, not before.

What does a violation of the Working Hours Act cost?

Breaching the hour limits costs a baseline of €200 per person per day, but missing or inadequate record-keeping costs €10,000.

The legal basis for the fine sits in article 10:5 of the Working Hours Act. The amounts themselves are set out in the Policy Rule on Fines under the Working Hours Act and Working Hours Decree 2013 (BWBR0032353). The Netherlands Labour Authority summarises them as €200 per person per day for breaching the hour limits, and €10,000 for missing or inadequate record-keeping. Breaching the ban on child labour costs €1,000 to €2,000 per person per day. Company size acts as a multiplier: 0.5× for fewer than 10 employees, 0.75× for 10 to 50, and 1.5× for 100 or more. A fine issued directly without a prior warning carries an extra factor of 1.5, and repeat violations can push the amount up by 100% to 200%. Other, more specific fine amounts from the schedule are deliberately not listed here because they have not been separately verified. When facing an inspection, apply your own company-size percentage rather than the bare standard fine.

What can a collective bargaining agreement adjust, and what is always mandatory?

A collective bargaining agreement can stretch a limited number of limits or shorten a break, but the absolute hour ceilings, the record-keeping duty, and all pregnancy protections sit entirely outside its reach.

A collective bargaining agreement can adjust three limits.

Without a collective bargaining agreement, you cannot impose on-premises or contactable standby at all. The agreement is a gate here, not an adjustment.

What always remains mandatory, regardless of any agreement or contract:

When in doubt, assume the statutory floor applies, unless you have the collective bargaining agreement clause in writing in front of you.

What goes wrong with the record-keeping duty in practice?

For most employers, it fails as an administrative habit, not a legal one: nobody logs the hours actually worked, per person, in a form you can still produce going back 52 weeks. Taito.ai is a people operations system where rosters, hours worked, and time off come together. The record the Labour Authority expects is the hours actually worked, not the planned roster, and it arises from daily use rather than a separate export built after the fact.

For the rest of Dutch employment law, from the chain-of-contracts rule to sick pay, see the compliance hub for the Netherlands.

Sources

• Working Hours Act (Arbeidstijdenwet)
• Working Hours Decree (Arbeidstijdenbesluit)
• Civil Code, Book 7 (Burgerlijk Wetboek)
• Flexible Working Act (Wet flexibel werken)
• Netherlands Labour Authority — purpose and structure of the Working Hours Act
• Netherlands Labour Authority — fines under the Working Hours Act
• Policy Rule on Fines under the Working Hours Act and Working Hours Decree 2013 (BWBR0032353)
• Rijksoverheid.nl — minimum wage for additional and overtime hours
• Staatsblad 2026, 206 — commencement decree, Act on More Security for Flexible Workers

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.