In employment

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.

Your rights as 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.

A short summary of some basic rights:

Unemployment
You participate in the unemployment insurance.
(Your rights on staying in the Netherlands when unemployed are dictated by your legal status for the immigration services.)

Accident at work
You participate in the occupational disability insurance.
(Your rights on staying in the Netherlands when you cannot work due to occuptionial dissability are dictated by your legal status for the immigration services.)
Where your employer will have a standard occupational disability insurance coverage for its employees, he might also provide optional participation in a top-op scheme. This might be specifically interesting for partial disability (inbetween 15 to 80% disabled).

Illness
Illness, which no longer allows you to work, is covered by your employer. There are rules attached to receiving pay during illness-leave. It is likely that you need to inform you employer timely that you cannot show up at work that day due to illness. Furthermore, especially when the illness stays for longer than a few days, your employer might ask you for information, which you are obliged to give.

Pension
In the Netherlands when you are employed you built up pension in two ways. Firstly you built up state pension rights for each year that you work (or are resident) in the Netherlands. This will provide you with a standard payment when you turn 65 (although this age is under discussion, there are strong promotors to extend the retirement age to 67).
On top of this state pension, through your employer you are also participating in an occupation pension fund, which tops up a full state pension to 70% of your income. Note: when you do not receive a full Dutch state pension (which is very likely), you might fall short in built up pension in the end. It is wise to look closely into your pension rights.

Payslip
You will receive a monthly payslip, which is filled with useful information. Not only does it state how much money you will receive in your bank-account. A heap of information can be found here: How much does your gross salary amount? Which parts of your gross salary are going to social security contributions? How many holiday days have I had already? What is my BSN-number? Do I receive a payment for my travel expenses? Read more on how to read your payslip.

Holiday
You have the right to a certain number of days paid holiday during the year (likely to be something around 5 to 6 working weeks). On top of which you have the right to holidaypay. In May you will find that around 8% of your yearly income is added to your normal gross wage. This is your holiday pay!

Pregnancy and maternity leave
You have the right to take up pregnancy and maternity leave.

Ouderschapsverlof
For each child under the age of 8 you have the right to take up half a year leave. Often an employer provides a payment during this leave on certain conditions. Universities for example provide 62.5% payment for a period of 3 months.

Spaarloon / Levensloop
These are fiscal products which the government has created to help employees save money for life-events. There are certain rules attached to it, which your HRM-contactperson can explain to you. But generally they allow you to safe money taxfree. The monthly or yearly payment to these products are done straight from your salary before tax.

30% regeling
Under certain conditions you and your employer can apply for the 30%-rule. Which is a fiscal rule, allowing you to receive 30% of your wage tax-free.

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.