Holiday allowance, Paid Holidays and Paid Hours: Everything you need to know!

As an employee or employer, you're probably familiar with the terms holiday allowance (vakantiegeld), paid holidays (vakantiedagen) and paid hours (vakantie-uren). But how do they differ from one another? Let's start with the basics!

Holiday allowance (vakantiegeld)

Every employee is entitled to holiday allowance, also known as 'vakantiegeld'. You receive this amount in addition to your normal monthly salary. The holiday allowance you accrue can be found on your paycheck. Most employers pay this amount once a year, usually in May or June, as agreed in your employment contract or collective bargaining agreement.

Throughout the year you build up holiday allowance, so you can use it just before the summer months, when many people take vacation. In short, vacation pay is an annual financial allowance that helps you enjoy your vacation carefree, while vacation hours are simply the time you take off from work for vacation or other personal reasons.

Paid holidays (vakantiedagen)

In addition to receiving holiday allowance, you also accrue paid holidays (vakantiedagen). This means that when you go on vacation or just take a day off, you still get paid. Many people are not aware of it, but every employee is entitled to these paid days off.

The number of paid holidays you accrue depends on the industry you work in and the number of hours you work. According to Dutch law, every employee in full-time employment is entitled to at least 20 paid holidays per year. For employees with a zero/flex hours contract, a different system of paid hours instead of paid holidays applies, which we explain below.

Paid hours (vakantie-uren) 

With a flex/zero-hours contract, things work a little differently. Instead of paid holidays, you accrue paid hours (vakantie-uren). These hours are accrued throughout the year based on the number of hours worked. On your pay slip, you can see exactly how many paid hours you have accrued. You can use these paid hours for vacations and days off. If you have not taken any hours, these hours will be paid out. This happens once a year, in the first week of June, unless agreed otherwise.

So what about the public holidays? 

Many collective bargaining agreements state that employees are entitled to a day off during specifically designated public holidays. These holidays are explicitly named and established in the collective bargaining agreement. It is important to note that an official holiday on which an employee has time off is not deducted from the number of vacations the employee has.

The treatment of public holidays differs for part-time employees and for on-call or temporary/flex employees. You can read more details on this below.

On-call workers and flex/temporary workers, public holidays

For on-call workers, their employer is not required to call them on official holidays when the company is closed. Therefore, on-call workers are not entitled to pay wages for these holidays.

For temporary/flex workers, the rules are slightly different. According to both the NBBU CBA and the ABU CBA, agency workers must receive pay if it is clear that the official holiday falls on a day on which they normally work, as agreed in their agency contract.

If it is not clear whether the public holiday falls on a normal working day, specific rules apply. If a temporary/flex worker has worked at least 7 times on that day in the 13 weeks preceding the public holiday, they are entitled to be paid wages. Pay is then calculated as the average of the weeks worked on that day in the week. If the temporary/flex worker has worked less than 13 weeks, the number of weeks worked prior to the holiday is considered. If he has worked more than half of those weeks on that day, he is also entitled to pay.

Part time employment, public holidays

If an official holiday falls on a part-timer's day off, that employee does not benefit from the holiday, while a full-timer does enjoy the benefit of an extra day off. On the other hand, if the official holiday coincides with a day on which the part-timer would normally have to work, the part-timer actually benefits more from the holiday because the part-timer also gets the day off and is paid, while a full-timer treats that day as free.