لوند meer zekerheid flexwerkers: د کارګمارونکو او انعطاف وړ کارمندانو لپاره څه بدلون

The Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers (More Security for Flexible Workers Act) has been passed by both chambers of parliament, the Tweede Kamer on 12 May 2026 and the Eerste Kamer on 7 July 2026, but it is not yet in force. Entry into force is set by royal decree and can be staggered per provision, so until that decree appears in the Staatsblad the existing rules on fixed-term contracts, on-call work and agency work continue to apply in full. This article sets out what the Act actually changes, what it leaves alone, and what employers can sensibly do now.

What the Act does and does not cover

The Act works on three forms of flexible work: successive fixed-term contracts, on-call arrangements and temporary agency work. It does not create a new test for the self-employed and it does not regulate platform work; those run along separate legislative tracks, and mixing them up is the most common misconception about this Act. Nor does it abolish flexible work. The design is narrower than the political debate suggests: it removes the constructions that allowed indefinite rotation through flexible arrangements, and it puts a floor under how unpredictable a working week may be.

It is worth being precise about the starting point, because a good deal of what is described as new in this Act has been law for years. The chain rule already limits an employer to three successive fixed-term contracts within a period of thirty-six months, after which the next contract is one for an indefinite period; that is article 7:668a of the Civil Code and it is unchanged by the Act. On-call workers already have to be called up at least four days in advance in writing or electronically, already keep their right to pay if the call-up is withdrawn inside that period, and are already entitled after twelve months to an offer of a fixed number of hours based on the preceding year; those rules date from 2020 and sit in article 7:628a of the Civil Code. Our guides to په هالنډ کې د کار قراردادونه او ته د ټاکلې مودې قرارداد نه نوي کول set out the position as it stands today.

The chain rule: an interruption of three years, not six months

The central change to the chain rule is the interruption period. Under current law a break of more than six months between contracts wipes the chain clean, so that a new series of three fixed-term contracts can begin. That six-month revolving door is what the Act closes: once it takes effect, the period after which a new chain may start becomes three years. The count of three contracts within thirty-six months itself stays as it is.

Three years rather than six months is a structural change for sectors that have organised themselves around the shorter break, and it is worth saying plainly that five years, a figure that circulated while the bill was in the Tweede Kamer, is not what was adopted. Shorter interruption periods are retained for schoolchildren and students working limited hours alongside their studies, and the existing exception for genuinely seasonal work that cannot be performed for more than nine months a year is kept. Collective agreements will still matter here, but the room they have to depart from the statutory scheme is narrowed.

On-call work: the zero-hours contract goes

The zero-hours contract disappears. In its place comes a contract with a guaranteed minimum number of hours, above which the employer may call on the worker only within a limited band; the maximum is capped at a modest percentage above the agreed minimum, and outside that band the worker is free to refuse without consequences. The employee also has to be able to know when they are and are not available, with unavailability fixed per period rather than negotiated call by call. Where the hours actually worked structurally exceed the agreed band, the employer has to offer a contract that reflects the real pattern.

Exceptions remain, most clearly for schoolchildren and students in side jobs, and a limited number of other situations keep a genuine call-up arrangement. For employers the practical consequence is not primarily legal but organisational: rosters have to be planned further ahead, the cost of an unused reserve becomes visible on the payroll rather than being carried by the worker, and the annual hours arrangement becomes a more attractive instrument than the on-call contract it replaces. Our article on the reform of zero-hours contracts looks at that shift from the workforce planning side.

د ادارې کار: لنډې مرحلې او مساوي شرایط

For temporary agency work the Act writes into statute what has until now been left largely to collective agreements. The phase system is capped: phase A runs to fifty-two weeks, phase B allows a limited number of contracts within two years rather than three, and the total period before a contract for an indefinite period arises is shortened accordingly. The clause that allows an agency contract to end automatically when the client’s assignment ends is confined to the first phase.

The second change is at least as important. Agency workers become entitled to at least equivalent terms of employment to those of comparable workers employed directly by the client, which reaches beyond basic pay into the wider package. That is a payroll and administration problem before it is a legal one, because it requires the agency to know what the client’s own scheme actually contains. Our guide to the Dutch agency work phase system explains how the phases operate now.

Agency work is being reformed on a second front at the same time, and the two should not be confused. The Wet toelating terbeschikkingstelling van arbeidskrachten introduces an admission requirement for anyone who supplies labour: registration with the admitting authority runs from 1 November to 31 December 2026, the admission requirement takes effect on 1 January 2027, and enforcement follows from 1 January 2028. A hirer who engages an agency that is not admitted risks a penalty in its own right, which makes checking the register a procurement question for every client company.

What the Act does not do: the self-employed and platform work

Flexible work in the Netherlands is not only a matter of contract forms; a large part of it sits outside employment law altogether, in assignments given to the self-employed. That question is governed by a different set of measures. The rebuttable presumption of an employment contract below a certain hourly rate was adopted and published in the Staatsblad on 29 June 2026, with entry into force again by royal decree, while the part of the original bill that was meant to clarify the assessment of working relationships did not survive. Separately, the enforcement moratorium on the assessment of working relationships ended on 1 January 2025, so the Tax Administration has been able to act on false self-employment since then. Where the boundary runs is set out in our article on کله چې قراردادي کارمند شي.

Platform work is a third track again. A European directive on platform work has to be transposed into national law, with the deadline falling at the end of 2026, and a Dutch implementing act dealing with the presumption of employment and with algorithmic management is in preparation. Nothing in the Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers classifies platform workers, and any statement that it does is simply wrong.

What employers can usefully do now

Because the commencement date is not fixed, the sensible response is preparation rather than premature amendment. Start by mapping where the six-month interruption is actually being used in your organisation, since that is where the three-year period will bite hardest and where the workforce planning consequences are greatest. Then look at your on-call population and calculate what a guaranteed minimum with a limited band would cost against what you currently pay; in operations with a stable underlying demand, the difference is often smaller than expected.

Review your agency contracts on two points: whether the supplier will be admitted under the new admission regime in time, and what information you will have to provide about your own terms of employment so that equivalence can be established. Check what your collective agreement says, because the room for deviation is being narrowed and clauses that rely on it may need renegotiation. Finally, do not rewrite contracts to anticipate rules that are not yet in force. A contract drafted against a regime that has not commenced can create obligations you did not intend, and it cannot be undone unilaterally afterwards. The broader framework is set out in our د هالنډ د کارموندنې قانون لارښود.

What flexible workers should watch

Until the Act commences, your rights are the current ones, and they are more substantial than many people realise. If you are on call, you are entitled to at least four days notice of a shift, to payment if a shift is withdrawn inside that period, and, after twelve months, to an offer of a fixed number of hours based on what you actually worked. If you have had three fixed-term contracts, or your fixed-term contracts have run for more than three years, the next one is generally a permanent contract by operation of law, whether or not anyone says so. Those entitlements are worth checking against your payslips and rosters now, because claims of this kind become harder to prove as time passes and some are subject to short limitation periods.

When the Act does take effect, the change most likely to affect you personally is the interruption period: an employer who lets you go with the suggestion of taking you back after the summer will no longer be able to restart the chain that way. If that is proposed to you, it is worth asking on what basis.

ډېرپېښې پوښتنې

Law & More advises employers and employees on fixed-term, on-call and agency work, on the changes the Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers will bring and on the position that applies until it commences. If you are reviewing your contracts or your workforce planning, or you want to know what your current contract actually entitles you to, contact our employment law team in Eindhoven or Amsterdam.