Can I go on holiday while on sick leave in the Netherlands?

Yes, in both cases, but the rules differ. If you are ill and still employed, you arrange holiday with your employer and the company doctor, and your holiday entitlement keeps building up as normal. If you receive a Ziektewet sickness benefit from the UWV, you report the holiday to the UWV in advance, and the benefit continues for a limited number of days a year. Both situations are set out below, plus what happens if you fall ill during your holiday.

Ill and employed: holiday with your employer

Taking holiday is allowed, in consultation. Also during illness, the employer sets holiday in line with your wishes unless weighty reasons stand in the way (article 7:638(2) of the Civil Code (BW)). During illness one reason is added: the holiday must not get in the way of your recovery and reintegration. Employers therefore usually ask the company doctor. If the doctor says the trip does no harm, there is rarely a ground to refuse.

Sick days are not holiday days, unless you want them to be. Days on which you are ill during a scheduled holiday do not count as holiday, unless you agree to that in the particular case (article 7:638(8) BW). If you do want to take holiday days while ill, for example because you are then free of reintegration appointments and receive your full wage, that is possible with your consent. Only for days above the statutory minimum may a written agreement provide in advance that sick days count as holiday.

You keep reintegrating. As long as you are ill, your duties under article 7:660a BW apply: follow reasonable instructions, perform suitable work and cooperate with the plan of action. A holiday that clashes with those is better moved. If you fail to keep to the arrangements without good reason, the employer may suspend or stop your pay (article 7:629(3) BW).

Building up holiday while ill

During illness you build up holiday in full, just as when you work. Holiday entitlement follows the entitlement to wages, and during illness the employer continues to pay (article 7:634(1) BW and article 7:629(1) BW). The old rule that an ill employee built up holiday only over the last six months was abolished in 2012.

Do your days lapse? Statutory holiday days lapse six months after the year in which they were built up, unless you were reasonably unable to take them (article 7:640a BW). Someone who is fully unfit for work with no reintegration options was unable to; those days stay. Someone who can reintegrate can in principle also take holiday, and then the period runs. Days above the statutory minimum do not lapse but become time-barred five years after the year of accrual (article 7:642 BW).

One condition applies: the employer must enable you to take your holiday and warn you clearly and in good time that the days will otherwise lapse. If the employer does not, they do not lapse (Court of Justice of the EU, 6 November 2018, C-684/16, Max-Planck). During a long illness, ask in writing for a statement of your balance.

On the Ziektewet: reporting holiday to the UWV

If you receive a Ziektewet benefit because you no longer have an employer, for instance after a fixed-term contract ended or as an agency worker, the UWV is your point of contact. The UWV's rules:

• Report the holiday in advance, through Mijn UWV, at the latest two weeks before departure. The UWV assesses whether the holiday delays your recovery and whether you keep your appointments with the insurance doctor and the reintegration adviser.
• The benefit continues for a limited number of holiday days a year. The UWV applies a maximum of twenty days per calendar year; for extra days there is no benefit. Check the current number on uwv.nl before you book.
• Not reporting is risky. The UWV can refuse the benefit in whole or in part if you do not comply with its control rules or hinder your recovery (article 45(1) of the Sickness Benefits Act (ZW)), and can reclaim benefit paid in excess.

On the Ziektewet you do not build up holiday days; there is no employer with whom to take them. The UWV does pay holiday allowance over the benefit, in May or when the benefit ends.

Fallen ill during your holiday

Report sick to your employer at once, also from abroad, in the way your company prescribes. From that report the days no longer count as holiday (article 7:638(8) BW); you get them back. Your employer may set reasonable written control rules, such as an address where you can be reached or a certificate from a local doctor; ignoring them risks suspension of pay (article 7:629(6) BW). Keep doctor's certificates and receipts.

If you have no employer and fall ill during a holiday while on unemployment benefit (WW), report it to the UWV; after thirteen weeks of illness the WW passes into the Ziektewet.

What to do

• Employed: discuss the holiday with your employer, ask for the company doctor's view and record the arrangement in writing.
• Decide yourself whether sick days count as holiday; by default they do not.
• During a long illness, ask for a statement of your holiday balance and the lapse dates.
• On the Ziektewet: report every holiday through Mijn UWV at least two weeks in advance.
• Ill on holiday: report sick immediately and keep evidence.