What is the statutory notice period in the Netherlands?

The statutory notice period for an employee in the Netherlands is one month. For the employer it runs from one to four months, depending on how long you have been employed. Both are in article 7:672 of the Civil Code (BW), and your contract or collective agreement (cao) may deviate, within limits. Below: the periods, the exceptions for fixed-term contracts, on-call workers and probation, and what happens when someone does not keep to them.

The statutory periods

Employee: one month. If you resign, a notice period of one month applies (article 7:672(3) BW), however long you have worked there.

Employer: one to four months, by length of service on the day notice is given (article 7:672(2) BW):

Notice runs to the end of the month. Notice takes effect at the end of a calendar month, unless a different day is agreed in writing (article 7:672(1) BW). Give notice on 12 March with a one-month period, and the contract ends on 30 April, not 12 April.

Deviating in the contract or cao

• A longer period for the employee is allowed only in writing, up to six months. The employer's period must then be at least double. If your contract says two months for you and two for the employer, the employer's period is four months. If the employer's period has not been doubled, the statutory month applies to you after all.
• A shorter period for the employer is possible only by cao, not in an individual contract.
• Deduction for a UWV procedure. If the employer gives notice with UWV permission, it may deduct the duration of that procedure from its notice period, as long as at least one month remains (article 7:672(4) BW).

Fixed-term contract

A fixed-term contract ends by itself on its end date; no notice is needed. Ending it early is possible only if the contract contains an early-termination clause (article 7:667(3) BW); the ordinary periods above then apply. Without that clause both sides are bound until the end date.

There is, however, a notification duty (aanzegtermijn): for a contract of six months or longer, the employer must tell you in writing, at the latest one month before the end, whether it will renew and on what terms (article 7:668(1) BW). If it does not, or does so late, it owes compensation of up to one month's salary, pro rata to the delay (article 7:668(3) BW).

Zero-hours and on-call contracts

If you have an on-call contract, such as a zero-hours or min-max contract, your own notice period is not a month but four days, the same as the period with which the employer must call you in (article 7:672 BW). If a cao shortens that call-in period, your notice period is equally short. For the employer the ordinary periods in the table apply.

Probation and summary dismissal

During a valid probation period both sides may terminate with immediate effect, without notice (article 7:676(1) BW). Summary dismissal for an urgent reason has no notice period either (article 7:677(1) BW); your rights in that case are in Instant dismissal (ontslag op staande voet): what now?.

Settlement agreement and the notional notice period

If you part by mutual consent, you choose the end date together. Mind unemployment benefit (WW): the UWV starts the benefit only after the notice period the employer would have had to observe on an ordinary dismissal (article 19(3) of the Unemployment Insurance Act (WW)). If the end date is earlier, you spend those weeks without pay and without benefit. So set the end date at least the employer's notice period after signing, counted from the end of the month.

Notice given too late or too early

Whoever gives notice without observing the period owes compensation equal to the wage over the period that should have applied (article 7:672 BW). That goes for the employer and for the employee who simply walks out. A court may reduce the compensation, but not below three months' wage, unless the statutory period was shorter.

During illness the employer may in principle not give notice at all; see Can I be fired while on sick leave?. If you are thinking of resigning while ill, first read Can I resign while on sick leave?.

Two worked examples

• You resign on 20 June with the statutory one-month period. The period runs from 1 July; your last working day is 31 July.
• Your employer gives notice on 3 October after twelve years of service, with UWV permission that took five weeks. Statutory three months, minus five weeks of procedure, leaves a little over one month and three weeks; rounded to the end of the month, the contract ends on 31 December. Without the UWV deduction it would be 31 January.

What to do

• Check your contract and cao first: they may set a different period from the law, but only within the limits above.
• Give notice in writing and name the end date; count from the end of the month.
• Fixed-term contract without an early-termination clause: you cannot leave early, but the employer cannot get rid of you early either.
• With a settlement agreement: do not let the end date fall before the notional notice period.