Information for foreign employers and the self-employed

Are you an employer abroad or a self-employed person with a duty to notify from the EU, EEA or Switzerland, and do you have a temporary posting or assignment in the Netherlands? If so, you have a duty to notify this through the Dutch online notification portal.

Employers abroad, self-employed persons and service recipients

The Terms of Employment Posted Workers in the European Union Act (WagwEU) makes a distinction between employers abroad, self-employed persons, and clients (the service recipient).

You are an employer abroad if, as a foreign employer, you:

come to the Netherlands with your own personnel to carry out a posting or assignment;
second employees temporarily from a multinational company to a branch of the same company or group in the Netherlands; or
as a foreign temporary employment agency, make temporary agency workers available in the Netherlands, for a period of time.

Are you a self-employed person who has a temporary posting or assignment in the Netherlands? If so, in some cases you have a duty to notify.

The service recipient, or your client, is the one for whom you will perform the work and with whom you have a contract. This could be a service contract, building contract or assignment contract.

If you, as an employer abroad or self-employed person, contract a third company or self-employed person from another member state to work for your service recipient in the Netherlands, this involves subcontracting. You then are the service recipient of the subcontractor. The third company notifies its own personnel, or the self-employed person with a duty to notify makes their own notification, and you review the notification.

Notifying online

You can notify easily through the online notification portal. You must notify before starting work in the Netherlands. The service recipient then reviews the notification. As an employer abroad or self-employed person, you should notify the following:

the identity of the person submitting the notification;
the details of your company;
your contact person in the Netherlands, as stated in Article 7 of the WagwEU, unless you are self-employed;
the details of the Dutch service recipient;
the sector in which you will be working in the Netherlands;
the address/place where the work will be performed;
the expected duration of the work;
the identity of the person responsible for payment of salary/wage, if you are not paying the salary/wage yourself;
the identity of any employees;
the presence of an A1 declaration or other type of evidence that shows where the social security contributions are paid for you or your employee(s), because of the contribution for the relevant social security scheme.

For more information on the data needed to complete a notification in the online notification portal please check the checklist for employers abroad or self-employed persons.

Exceptions to notification obligation

In some cases there are exceptions to the duty to notify.

Self-employed persons

If you are a self-employed person working in one of the following sectors, you are always obliged to notify:

construction;
cleaning;
food industry;
metal;
care;
window-cleaning;
agriculture and horticulture.

You can find a full list of the sectors for which you must notify here. If you don’t work in any of these sectors, you do not have to notify your work in the Netherlands.

Transport sector

There are additional rules that apply to the transport sector. You can find them here.

One-year notification

A limited duty to notify applies in some cases, in the form of one-year notification. You then only have to notify once a year. The one-year notification applies to small businesses (1-9 employees) and to self-employed persons with a duty to notify who are based within a 100-kilometre radius of the Dutch border and who work regularly in the Netherlands.

Even if you work in the freight transport by road sector, you may be eligible for a one-year notification.

A one-year notification does not apply to the construction sector or the temporary employment sector.

No duty to notify

You do not have a o duty to notify your employees:

if your company is based in the Netherlands and your employees work on the basis of a Dutch contract;
if you second employees within the Netherlands;
if your employees perform work in certain subsectors of the transport sector;
if your employees perform work in the public administration sector, public services or extraterritorial organisations;
if your employees perform incidental work in the Netherlands. This includes business meetings, urgent maintenance and repairs or attending conferences. A full list of the categories and conditions for incidental work can be found here.

If in doubt, consult your personnel advisor or the FAQs.

Posted workers who are nationals of countries outside the EU, EEA or Switzerland

If you second employees who are nationals of countries outside the EU, EEA or Switzerland temporarily to the Netherlands, the duty to notify applies and your employees are entitled to the main terms of employment in the Netherlands. Additional requirements may also apply. For example, an employee from a third country who is seconded to the Netherlands for longer than 3 months requires a residence permit. You can find more information here about additional requirements for workers from outside the EU, EEA or Switzerland.

Monitoring

The Inspectorate SZW (Social Affairs and Employment) checks whether employers abroad, self-employed persons and service recipients are complying with the Terms of Employment Posted Workers in the European Union Act (WagwEU). Along with the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration and the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB), the Inspectorate SZW has direct access to all notifications.

The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) can request information from the notification portal if a posted foreign national requires a residence permit. The social partners can request information from the notification portal to check compliance with collective agreement conditions.

Fine

If a check or a visit to the place of work reveals that you did not notify your arrival in advance or notified it incorrectly, a fine may be imposed on both you and your service recipient. You can find the amounts of the fines here.

Rights and obligations

Employees who are posted temporarily to the Netherlands are entitled to the main terms of employment that apply in the Netherlands. These terms of employment are set out in Dutch legislation. In sectors where a universally binding collective agreement applies, posted workers are also entitled to the ‘hard core’ of the terms of employment from this collective agreement. The employers of posted workers must therefore also comply with this. As an employer abroad, you also have a number of administrative obligations.

Read more about your obligations as an employer abroad or self-employed person.