Zero hour contract

A zero-hours agreement, also known as an on-call agreement, is an agreement in which you agree that the employee will only work if he or she is called or scheduled. The employee therefore has no guaranteed wage, but there is an obligation for the employee to go to work. There is a minimum call duration of 3 hours per call, subject to a few exceptions. When an employee starts working for the first time and it is still uncertain how much work there is, a zero-hours agreement is a good solution.

Normally, an employer schedules an employee on a weekly basis and indicates to him or her what hours she or he is expected in the coming week. A convocation must be notified at least 4 days in advance. An employee is therefore entitled to those scheduled hours. In the event of illness, he or she is also entitled to continued payment of those scheduled hours.

In principle, an employee with a zero-hours agreement may, after three months, call on a minimum fixed number of hours to work. After three months, the employee can therefore claim to be scheduled in accordance with the average number of hours of the previous three months. After one year, the employer must make a written offer with a fixed number of hours based on the average size. An exception to this is if the employee explicitly renounces a fixed number of working hours.

An employee is entitled to continued payment of wages for the number of scheduled or rostered hours of the upcoming period. If the employee has been working for more than 3 months, the employer must pay the average number of hours of the previous three months until the recovery or the expiry of the contract. If this does not apply, the employee is in some cases entitled to a benefit from the UWV.

Basically yes, unless you explicitly agree otherwise. If the employer and employee agree that it can also be an hour, for example, then that is allowed. It must then be recorded, otherwise it is assumed that it concerns at least 3 hours. If, due to circumstances, someone works shorter hours, for example because the employee is scheduled for three hours, but comes one hour late, it is wise to record this.

The same rules apply to the accrual of leave days, holiday pay and pension as for employees who work a fixed number of hours. Naturally, the reservation and deduction is in proportion to the number of hours actually worked.

No, an employee with a zero-hours contract of, for example, six months, remains “employed” until the expiry or earlier termination of the agreement. If you do not call the employee at all after two months, he or she cannot claim unemployment benefits. If someone is no longer working due to illness, the obligations in accordance with the Gatekeeper Act also apply in full.

With a zero-hours contract, a different notice period applies. Where normally at least one month applies, for a zero-hours contract it is four days: the minimum period during which an employer must call someone in advance.