Employee & social security status
When you are an employee in the Netherlands, several different rules and legislation will together make up your social security status. Next to your participation in national social security schemes there are working conditions, collective labour agreements. Here a short overview is given of these rights.
1. When are you employed?
You are employed only when you have an employment contract with your employer. Some research institutions/universities are governed by civil servant rules, other are private institutions. The contract they provide is slightly different, but both types are employment contracts as meant here.
2. Employee and social security
From the start of their contract, employees participate in the Dutch social security system, both in the national insurance schemes and the employee insurance schemes.
Furthermore employees participate in the company's occupational pension scheme.
The contributions of the social security system and the company's pension scheme are partly paid by your employer and partly paid by yourself out of your gros salary. On your payslip you can see what you contribute.
Note that anyone participating in the Dutch national insurance schemes has the right/obligation to participate in the Dutch public healthcare insurance.
Read more on the Dutch public healthcare insurance.
3. Rights of an employee
The best person to tell you about the rights you have as an employee, is your HRM-contact person. As the rights you are provided with might differ a lot with what you are used to in your country, it might be a good idea to just ask about which facilities and rights you have as an employee, even if you do not have a specific question.
More about salaries, payslip, working hours, holidays and leave.
Links to other websites: VSNU - FAQ's on employee related issues
Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment with information on employment conditions.
4. Collective Labour Agreement
By law each branch in the Netherlands regularly lays down its secundary employment conditions. They are laid down in a Collective Labour Agreement (in Dutch: collectieve arbeidsovereenkomst - CAO).
The CAO-negotiations are done by the social partners (representatives of employers with representatives of employees), within a framework laid down by the government.
The Collective Labour Agreement for universities is laid down in CAO-NU. Which is also available in English. It provides a very good idea on what you can expect from being in employment with a university.
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