How much leave does an employee get?
The statutory minimum is four times the agreed weekly working hours. Someone working 40 hours a week earns at least 160 hours; someone working 24 hours earns 96. If someone works for you for only part of the year, they earn leave pro rata.
Anything you give on top, through the contract or collective agreement (cao), is non-statutory leave (bovenwettelijk). Different expiry rules apply to those days, so keep them separate in your records.
| Hours per week | Minimum leave per year |
|---|---|
| 40 | 160 hours |
| 32 | 128 hours |
| 24 | 96 hours |
When does leave expire?
Statutory holiday days expire six months after the end of the year in which they were earned (Civil Code art. 7:640a). Days from 2026 expire on 1 July 2027. That doesn't apply if the employee reasonably couldn't take them.
Non-statutory days don't expire after six months; they only lapse five years after the year they were earned (art. 7:642).
When employment ends, you give the employee a statement of the leave they still have (art. 7:641 paragraph 2). You can only do that if your balance per employee is right.
Tell employees well before 1 July how many statutory days from last year are still open, so they can still take them.
What must you record, and for how long?
The Dutch Working Hours Act (Arbeidstijdenwet, art. 4:3) requires employers to keep ‘a proper record’ of working and rest times. You keep that record for at least 52 weeks (Arbeidstijdenbesluit art. 3.2:1). A record of leave and sickness fits naturally alongside it: it explains why someone didn't work on a given day.
If you claim the WBSO, the Dutch R&D tax credit, there's another reason. RVO says not to record R&D hours for employees who are sick or on leave, and can compare your R&D hours with your leave and absence records. More in WBSO time records.
- Per employee, the date and type of absence: holiday, sickness or special leave.
- Whether it's a full or half day.
- Who approved the leave and, if declined, why.
- The balance: earned, taken and remaining, statutory and non-statutory separately.
A workable route: request, approve, record
Leave goes wrong most often when it runs through loose messages and a shared calendar. A fixed route stops days being booked twice or not at all.
- The employee requests leave, with the date, type and full or half day.
- The manager approves or declines. When declining, they give a reason so the employee knows what to change.
- Once approved, the day is in the time records with the right type.
- The balance is updated wherever you keep it, usually your payroll or HR system.
Keep sickness separate from holiday and special leave. A sick day booked as a holiday makes the balance wrong.
Sick, holiday or special leave: what's the difference?
Holiday is the leave the employee earns and requests. Sickness isn't leave you plan: an employee reports sick. Special leave is absence for a specific reason, as agreed in the contract or cao.
Record them as separate types. Then you can report per type and see, for example, whether sickness absence in a team is rising, without holiday days muddying the picture.
How Half5 does it
In Half5 an employee records absence as ‘Vakantie’ (holiday), ‘Ziek’ (sick) or ‘Bijzonder’ (special), for a ‘Hele dag’ (full day) or ‘Halve dag’ (half day), with an optional note. Requests reach the approver on the hour approval screen under ‘Open aanvragen’ (open requests). If the approver declines, they fill in a reason the employee can see. The ‘Afwezigheid’ (absence) report shows who was away when, and the export has a ‘Verlof/verzuim’ (leave/absence) column per line. Leave never becomes an invoice line.
Half5 doesn't track a leave balance today: no accrual, no remaining balance and no expiry date per employee. Keep the balance in your payroll or HR system and use Half5 for the request, the approval and the record of the days themselves.
Frequently asked questions
When do holiday days from 2026 expire?
Statutory holiday days from 2026 expire on 1 July 2027, unless the employee reasonably couldn't take them. Non-statutory days only lapse after five years.
How much leave does someone working 32 hours a week get?
At least four times the weekly working hours, so 128 hours a year. Anything the contract or cao adds is non-statutory leave.
Do I need to provide anything about leave when someone leaves?
Yes. At the end of employment the employer gives a statement of the leave the employee still has (Civil Code art. 7:641 paragraph 2).
How long do I keep working-time records?
Records of working and rest times under the Dutch Working Hours Act must be kept for at least 52 weeks.
Can an employee record WBSO hours on a day of leave?
No. RVO says not to record R&D hours for employees who are sick or on leave, and it can check them against your leave and absence records.
Does Half5 track my leave balance?
Not today. Half5 records the request, the approval and the leave days; keep the balance in your payroll or HR system.
