Being ill is unavoidable, and understanding what to do when it happens — and what your employer is legally required to do — can make an already difficult period considerably less stressful. Dutch employment law offers some of the strongest sick leave protections in Europe, but the system comes with specific rules, timelines, and obligations that every expat employee should know before they need them.
Calling in sick: what you must do on day one
In the Netherlands, you are required to notify your employer of your illness as soon as possible on the first day of absence — typically before your normal start time. This notification is known as a ziekmelding. Most employers specify the preferred method: a telephone call to your direct manager is standard, and many employers explicitly do not accept a text message or email as a first contact. Your employer may ask you to state your expected duration of absence and a contact number, but that is all they are legally permitted to request. You are not required to name or describe your illness, and under Dutch privacy law — the Wet bescherming persoonsgegevens and the European GDPR — your employer is not allowed to record your diagnosis.
How much you are paid during sick leave
Dutch law guarantees a minimum of 70 per cent of your last-earned wage for up to two years of illness, though during the first year this 70 per cent must be at least equal to the statutory minimum wage (minimumloon). In practice, many collective labour agreements (CAO) are more generous: it is common for the first year of illness to be paid at 100 per cent and the second year at 70 per cent, though this depends on your sector and your individual employment contract. If your contract is silent on the matter and no CAO applies, the statutory minimum of 70 per cent applies from day one. There is no waiting period — unlike some countries, Dutch law does not allow employers to impose unpaid days at the start of a sick period.
Your right to privacy
One of the most significant protections in the Dutch system is the strict separation between your employer and your medical information. Your employer cannot ask what is wrong with you, cannot require you to provide a doctor's note as a condition of continued pay, and cannot record your diagnosis in any company system. When a company doctor (bedrijfsarts) becomes involved — which typically happens around the sixth week of illness — that doctor works independently and communicates with your employer only in terms of what you are functionally capable of doing, not why. This means your employer may learn that you are unable to sit for prolonged periods, but not that you have a back injury or are receiving treatment for depression.
What happens after six weeks: the reintegration process
If you are still unwell after six weeks, your employer is required to draw up a plan van aanpak — an action plan — together with you, outlining steps towards recovery and return to work. A company doctor must have assessed you by this point. At 42 weeks of continuous illness, your employer must formally notify the UWV, the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency. Throughout the two-year period, both you and your employer have active reintegration obligations: your employer must explore whether you can return to your own role (spoor 1) and, if not, whether alternative work can be found at another employer (spoor 2). Failure by your employer to document and pursue reintegration properly can result in the UWV imposing a wage sanction, forcing your employer to continue paying your salary for an additional 52 weeks beyond the normal two-year limit.
Job protection during illness
For the duration of your sick leave — up to two years — your employer is prohibited from dismissing you solely on grounds of illness. This is known as the opzegverbod tijdens ziekte (prohibition on dismissal during illness). There are limited exceptions: if your company closes entirely, or if you refuse to co-operate with reintegration without valid reason, your dismissal protection may be weakened. But in normal circumstances, your position is secure while you are ill, and any notice of dismissal issued during sick leave is void. This protection applies equally to employees on permanent contracts and those on fixed-term contracts, although for the latter it runs only for the remainder of the contract duration.
After two years: the WIA assessment
When two years of illness have elapsed, the UWV carries out an assessment under the Wet werk en inkomen naar arbeidsvermogen (WIA). If you are found to be more than 35 per cent incapacitated for work, you may be entitled to a government benefit: the IVA for full and permanent incapacity, or the WGA for partial or temporary incapacity. If your incapacity is below 35 per cent, you receive no WIA benefit and are expected to find work independently. At this point your employer may also give notice of termination, subject to the standard dismissal rules. For expats on a sponsored work visa, it is worth consulting an employment lawyer or your employer's HR team well before the two-year mark, as long-term incapacity can have implications for your residence permit status.
Disagreeing with the company doctor
The bedrijfsarts assesses what you are functionally able to do, and their opinion drives the reintegration process. Employees often assume this assessment is final. It is not.
If you believe the company doctor has misjudged your capacity — in either direction — you can request a second opinion from another company doctor, and you can apply to the UWV for an independent expert judgement (deskundigenoordeel). That UWV opinion carries real weight in any subsequent dispute, and it is available to both employee and employer.
Use it rather than simply refusing to cooperate. Declining to engage with reintegration can justify suspending your sick pay, whereas formally contesting the assessment protects your position while the disagreement is resolved.
Falling ill while abroad
Expats frequently become ill while visiting family abroad, and the rules still apply. You must report sick on the first day exactly as you would at home, and you must remain reachable and available for assessment.
Employers can require you to return, or to be assessed locally, and prolonged unreachability can put your sick pay at risk. If you fall ill abroad, tell your employer immediately, give them a working phone number and address, and ask explicitly what they require rather than assuming distance excuses the usual obligations.
If you are on a temporary contract or agency work
Protection is strong but its duration is not unlimited, and this is where expats on fixed-term arrangements get caught. Dismissal protection during illness runs only to the end of the contract — when a fixed-term contract expires while you are ill, it simply ends.
At that point responsibility generally transfers to the UWV rather than the employer, and you claim sickness benefit through them. The practical consequence is a change of counterparty, of payment level, and of process, at the least convenient possible moment. If your contract end date is approaching while you are on sick leave, find out in advance what happens rather than discovering it when payments stop.
What illness means for your residence permit
This is the expat-specific dimension the Dutch system is not designed around. Many residence permits — the highly skilled migrant permit in particular — are tied to continued employment above a salary threshold.
Sick pay at 70% can drop you below the threshold your permit requires, and if long-term illness ends the employment relationship the permit basis disappears with it. This does not usually bite immediately, and there are search periods and alternative routes, but it needs handling deliberately.
If illness looks likely to extend beyond a few months, take immigration advice early — well before the two-year mark, not after. The interaction between long-term sickness, the WIA assessment and permit renewal is genuinely complex, and options are far wider while you are still employed.