All employers will be confronted with sickness absenteeism of employees at some stage. Under Dutch law, employees accrue holidays during sickness absence. However, in certain cases, (part of) the days the employees are absent due to illness can be deducted from holiday.
Holiday days may only be deducted from the days exceeding the statutory minimum and not from the statutory holidays. The number of statutory holidays equals four times the number of the employee’s weekly working hours. An employee working full time with 25 holidays therefore has 20 statutory holiday days and 5 days exceeding the statutory minimum. Sick days may only be deducted from the 5 days exceeding the statutory minimum.
In addition, it is required that a deduction from holidays must be clearly agreed upon in the employment contract. If it is not included in the employment contract that sick days are deducted from holidays, sick days can only be deducted with the employees’ consent. Obviously, it is not likely that an employee is willing to consent to this. If an employer wants to deduct sick days from the holidays, it is therefore recommended to include this in the employment contract.
In addition to deducting sick days from the holidays exceeding the statutory minimum employers can limit the risk of (long-term) sickness absence of their employees in different ways, for instance, by introducing a sound sickness absence policy. Russell Advocaten gladly provides advice on such a policy.
Would you like to know more about sickness of employees and holiday entitlements? Or do you have any other questions concerning employment law? Please contact Russell Advocaten:
The salary thresholds for highly skilled migrants and European Blue Card holders are adjusted annually. What will be the amounts for 2026? Also, stricter rules for the highly skilled migrant scheme are proposed. What might change?
On-call contracts offer many advantages for both employers and on-call employees. However, there are also a few rules that they need to take into account. What are they?
What shall we do with the drunken employee? Sack him? That isn’t always allowed. Alcohol abuse may be the result of an addiction and in that case the prohibition on termination during illness may apply. What do you have to take into account when dismissing an employee due to alcohol consumption?
24 November 2025 was Equal Pay Day in the Netherlands: the day of the year when men have earned on average as much as women in a whole year. How can the European Directive on wage transparency ensure that men and women are paid equally?
Almost all companies now use some form of AI. This means that they may be subject to the prohibitions and regulations set out in the European AI Act. How can you ensure that you comply with these rules?
The statutory minimum hourly wage changes every six months. What are the new amounts as of 1 January 2026?
